PRESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 


OF 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGICAL  SEMINARY 


BY 


f/ivs.  Rle^andep  Pi^udfit. 


"■■'<■:■ 


THE    SHEPHERDS    IN    THE    STABLE    AT    BETHLEHEM. 


[See  page  16.  J 


THE 


STORY  OF  THE  GOSPEL; 


OR, 


OUR  SAVIOUR'S  LIFE  ON  EARTH. 


WRITTEN  FOR  CHILDREN. 


BY  THE  AUTHOR  OF 


'THE    STORY    OF    THE    BIBLE.': 

CWks  TosTer 


PUBLISHED  BY 

CHARLES    FOSTER, 

PHILADELPHIA. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1880,  by 

CHARLES  FOSTER, 

In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


ELECTROTYPE D  BY  MACKELLAR,  SMITHS  A  JORDAN,  PHILADELPHIA. 


TO  PARENTS  AND  TEACHERS. 


In  this  little  book  an  attempt  is  made  to  tell  the 
Story  of  our  Saviour's  Life,  in  such  simple  language 
that  it  may  be  understood  by  young  children,  even 
though  they  have  had  no  previous  religious  instruction. 

In  preparing  it  the  author  has  followed  the  same 
Harmony  of  the  Gospels,  that  he  used  in  preparing  his 
former  work,  "The  Story  of  the  Bible;"  and  such 
passages  in  that  book  as  seemed  suitable  to  this,  he  has 
not  hesitated  to  iusert  without  change.  For  the  most 
part,  however,  the  matter  is  expressed  differently,  with 
the  view  of  making  it  still  more  intelligible  to  the  un- 
tutored mind. 

This  book  differs,  also,  from  "The  Gospels"  in  "The 
Story  of  the  Bible,"  in  not  presupposing  that  the  pupil 
has  a  knowledge  of  the  Old  Testament,  All  references 
to  that  part  of  Scripture  are  explained  when  made,  the 
design  being  to  have  this  little  work  complete  in  itself. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GOD  MAKES  THE  EARTH  AND  THE  SKY:  HE  MAKES  THE  FIRST 
MAN  AND  WOMAN,  AND  PUTS  THEM  IN  THE  GARDEN  OF 
EDEN.  SATAN  TEMPTS  THEM  TO  DISOBEY  GOD.  JESUS 
IS    BORN 7 

CHAPTER    II. 

MARY  AND  JOSEPH  BRING  JESUS  TO  THE  PASSOVER.  JOHN  THE 
BAPTIST  PREACHES  IN  THE  WILDERNESS,  AND  BAPTIZES 
JESUS.  JESUS  IS  TEMPTED.  HE  CHANGES  WATER  INTO 
WINE.      JOHN   THE    BAPTIST   IS   PUT  TO   DEATH.       .  24 

CHAPTER  III. 

JESUS  TALKS  WITH  THE  WOMAN  OF  SAMARIA.  HE  CURES  THE 
NOBLEMAN'S  SON  ;  TEACHES  THE  PEOPLE ;  CASTS  AN 
EVIL  SPIRIT  OUT  OF  A  MAN  ;  CURES  PETER'S  WIFE'S 
MOTHER,    AND    A   MAN   WITH   THE   PALSY.  .  40 

CHAPTER  IV. 

JESUS  CALLS  MATTHEW  TO  BE  HIS  DISCIPLE.  HE  CURES 
THE  SICK  MAN  AT  THE  POOL  OF  BETHESDA,  AND  THE 
MAN  WITH  A  WITHERED  HAND.  HE  CHOOSES  THE 
TWELVE  APOSTLES,  AND  PREACHES  THE  SERMON  ON 
THE  MOUNT.  55 

CHAPTER  V. 

JESUS  SPEAKS  PARABLES  TO  THE  PEOPLE.  HE  STILLS  THE  STORM 
ON  THE  SEA.  HE  CURES  THE  SICK  ;  RAISES  THE  DEAD  TO 
LIFE,  AND   GIVES   SIGHT  TO   THE    BLIND.  .  .  70 

CHAPTER  VI. 

JESUS  FEEDS  FIVE  THOUSAND  PERSONS.  HE  WALKS  ON  THE 
WATER  ;  HEALS  A  BLIND  MAN  ;  IS  TRANSFIGURED  ;  CASTS 
OUT  AN   EVIL   SPIRIT;    HEALS  TEN    LEPERS,  AND   SPEAKS 

PARABLES  TO   THE    PEOPLE 86 

V    • 


vi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  VII. 

JESUS  COMES  TO  BETHANY.  HE  TEACHES  THE  DISCIPLES  THE 
LORD'S  PRAYER  ;  SENDS  OUT  THE  SEVENTY  DISCIPLES  ; 
HEALS  THE  BLIND  MAN  AT  THE  POOL  OF  SILOAM  ;  RAISES 
LAZARUS   FROM  THE   DEAD 103 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

JESUS  CURES  THE  SICK  WOMAN  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE;  HE  SPEAKS 
THE  PARABLES  OF  THE  GREAT  SUPPER,  THE  PRODIGAL 
SON,  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS,  AND  THE  PHARISEE 
AND   THE    PUBLICAN 117 

CHAPTER  IX. 

JESUS  GOES  TO  THE  HOUSE  OF  ZACCHEUS.  HE  RIDES  INTO 
JERUSALEM;  CURSES  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE;  SPEAKS 
THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN  ;  EXPLAINS 
WHICH  IS  THE  PRINCIPAL  COMMANDMENT,  AND  SPEAKS 
OF  THE   WIDOW'S   MITE.  .  .  .  .  132 

CHAPTER  X. 

JESUS  SPEAKS  THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  TEN  VIRGINS,  AND  TELLS 
WHAT  WILL  HAPPEN  ON  THE  JUDGMENT  DAY.  MARY 
ANOINTS  HIS  HEAD.  HE  EATS  THE  FEAST  OF  THE 
PASSOVER  WITH  HIS  APOSTLES 147 

CHAPTER.  XI. 

JESUS  AND  HIS  APOSTLES  GO  TO  THE  GARDEN  OF  GETHSEMANE ; 
HE  IS  BETRAYED  ;  THE  APOSTLES  FLEE  AWAY  ;  HE  IS 
MOCKED  AND  CROWNED  WITH  THORNS;  HE  IS  CRUCI- 
FIED.    .  163 

CHAPTER  XII. 

PILATE  SENDS  SOLDIERS  TO  KILL  JESUS.  JOSEPH  BURIES  HIM  IN 
HIS  NEW  SEPULCHRE.  SOLDIERS  WATCH  THERE.  JESUS 
RISKS  PROM  THE  DEAD.  HE  SHOWS  HIMSELF  AT  DIF- 
FERENT TIMES  TO  THE  APOSTLES.  HE  ASCENDS  TO 
HEAVEN.  181 


THE 


STORY  OF  THE  GOSPEL 


CHAPTER  I. 


GOD  MAKES  THE  EARTH  AND  THE  SKY:  HE  MAKES  THE  FIRST 
MAN  AND  WOMAN,  AND  PUTS  THEM  IN  THE  GARDEN  OF 
EDEN.  SATAN  TEMPTS  THEM  TO  DISOBEY  GOD.  JESUS 
IS  BORN. 


GOD  lives  up  in  heaven,  where  we  cannot  see 
him,  but  he  looks  clown  and  sees  us  who 
live  in  this  world. 

He  sees  everything  we  do,  and  hears  every- 
thing we  say,  and  knows  even  what  we  think. 
For  He  is  the  One  who  knows  all  things. 

It  is  God  who  made  this  world,  and  heaven, 
and  everything  that  is  in  them.  He  made  the 
sun  to  shine  in  the  day,  and  the  moon  and  the 
stars  to  shine  in  the  night. 

He  made  the  animals,  the  birds,  and  the 
fishes;    the  trees,  the  grass,  and   the  flowers. 


8  THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

And  after  he  had  made  all  these  things,  he 
made  the  first  man. 

The  name  of  the  first  man  that  God  made 
was  Adam,  and  the  name  of  the  first  woman 
was  Eve.  There  were  no  other  jDersons  in  the 
world  when  God  made  them;  these  two  were 
all  alone. 

And  God  j)lanted  a  garden  for  Adam  and 
Eve  to  live  in.  A  garden,  you  know,  is  a  beau- 
tiful place  with  flowers  in  it.  But  this  garden, 
that  God  planted  for  Adam  and  Eve,  was  more 
beautiful,  we  snppose,  than  any  other  garden 
that  was  ever  in  the  world. 

It  was  called  the  garden  of  Eden.  It  not 
only  had  flowers  in  it,  but  trees  that  bore  fruit 
good  to  eat.  There  was  some  of  every  kind  of 
fruit  growing  in  the  garden  of  Eden. 

And  God  told  Adam  and  Eve  they  might 
eat  of  all  these  different  kinds,  except  one. 
But  of  that  one,  he  said,  they  must  not  eat,  for 
if  they  did,  they  should  surely  die.  This  one 
tree  was  very  little  for  them  to  go  without,  when 
there  were  so  many  they  might  have. 

And  God  told  Adam  and  Eve  the  name  of 
this  one  tree;  it  was  called  the  tree  of  the 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil.  And  he  showed 
them  where  it  grew,  in  the  middle  of  the  gar- 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  9 

den,  so  that  they  could  not  forget  it,  or  take 
any  fruit  off  of  it  by  mistake. 

I  have  told  you  that  God  lives  up  in  heaven. 
But  he  does  not  live  there  alone.  The  angels 
live  there  with  him.  God  made  the  angels  to 
live  with  him  in  heaven.  They  are  not  like 
us;  they  are  always  happy,  for  they  never  do 
wrong.  They  do  only  those  things  that  God 
tells  them  to  do. 

But  we  read,  in  the  Bible,  that  a  great  while 
ago,  some  of  the  angels  did  do  wrong.  They 
were  not  satisfied  with  the  things  that  God  had 
given  them,  and  they  were  not  willing  to  obey 
him.  Then  God  sent  them  out  of  heaven  and 
would  let  them  live  there  no  more.  And  these 
angels  that  wrere  sent  out  of  heaven,  are  alive 
yet,  for  angels,  or  spirits,  never  die. 

But  now  they  are  not  good  angels,  like  those 
who  are  living  up  in  heaven  with  God.  They 
are  bad  angels.  The  chief  one  among  them  is 
named  Satan.  He  is  their  king,  and  they  do 
as  he  tells  them. 

And  Satan  and  his  bad  angels  will  never  go 
up  to  heaven  again.  For  no  one  who  is  wicked 
can  go  there.  But  there  is  a  day  coming,  named 
the  Judgment  Day,  when  all  the  wicked  will  be 
sent  away  to  be  punished.     The  place  they  will 


10  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

be  sent  to  is  called  Hell.  And  at  the  Judgment 
Day,  Satan  and  his  bad  angels  will  be  sent 
into  Hell,  and  they  will  stay  there  forever. 

But  at  the  time  I  am  now  telling  you  about, 
when  God  made  Adam  and  Eve,  and  put  them 
in  the  beautiful  garden,  Satan  saw  them  there. 
And  they  were,  both  of  them,  very  happy 
in  the  garden,  because  they  were  good,  and 
obeyed  God. 

And  Satan  saw  that  they  were  good  and 
happy,  and  he  was  not  pleased.  For  he  is 
wicked  and  unhappy  himself,  and  he  wants 
every  one  else  to  be  like  him.  So,  when  he 
heard  God  tell  Adam  and  Eve  not  to  eat  of 
the  tree  that  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  garden, 
he  thought  he  would  try  and  persuade  them  to 
eat  of  it,  and  disobey  God,  as  he  had  done. 

Now  there  was  a  serpent,  or  snake,  in  the 
garden  of  Eden.  And  Satan  went  into  the 
serpent;  for  as  I  have  told  you,  he  is  a  spirit, 
and  spirits  have  not  bodies  as  we  have,  and  they 
can  go  where  we  cannot  go. 

So  Satan  went  into  the  serpent,  and  while  he 
was  in  the  serpent,  he  came  to  Eve  and  spoke 
to  her.  He  said,  Has  God  said  you  shall  not 
eat  of  every  tree  in  the  garden?  Eve  answered 
they  might  eat  of  all  the  trees  except  one,  but 


THE   STORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  11 

of  that  one  God  had  commanded  them  not  to 
eat,  lest  they  might  die. 

Then  Satan  told  her  that  even  if  they  did 
eat  of  the  tree,  they  should  not  die.  And  he 
said  that  God  had  forbidden  them  to  eat  of  it 
because  it  would  make  them  wise,  that  is,  would 
make  them  know  a  great  deal. 

And  Eve  listened  to  what  Satan  said.  When 
anybody  persuades  us  to  do  wrong,  we  ought 
not  to  listen  to  him.  Then  there  would  be  no 
danger  of  our  doing  as  he  tells  us  to.  But  Eve 
listened  to  Satan. 

And  when  she  saw  that  the  tree  was  a  beau- 
tiful tree,  and  that  the  fruit  seemed  good  to  eat, 
and  remembered  that  the  serpent  had  said  it 
would  make  her  wise,  she  took  some  of  the 
fruit  and  did  eat  of  it,  and  she  gave  some  to 
Adam,  her  husband,  and  he  did  eat.  So  they 
both  disobeyed  God  and  sinned;  for  when  we 
disobey  God,  that  is  sin. 

Then  God  drove  them  out  of  the  garden  of 
Eden,  and  would  let  them  live  there  no  longer. 
And  he  sent  some  of  his  good  angels  down 
from  heaven,  to  watch  that  they  did  not  go  in 
there  again. 

It  was  to  punish  them  that  God  sent  them 
away  from  the  beautiful  garden.     While  they 


12  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

were  there,  they  had  everything  that  they 
wanted.  The  fruit  that  they  ate,  grew  by  itself, 
without  their  working  to  make  it  grow. 

But  in  the  place  where  they  came  to  live 
now,  the  fruit  would  not  grow  by  itself.  Adam 
had  to  plant  it  in  the  ground,  and  then  he  had 
to  dig  around  it,  and  work  very  hard  to  get 
enough  food  for  himself  and  Eve  to  eat. 

But  something  worse  than  this  happened  to 
them  on  account  of  their  sin.  Before  they 
had  disobeyed  God  their  hearts  were  good, 
but  after  they  had  disobeyed  him  their  hearts 
grew  wicked. 

Our  heart  is  that  part  of  us  that  makes  us 
want  to  do  right,  or  wrong.  When  we  have  a 
good  heart,  that  loves  God,  we  want  to  do  right; 
but  when  we  have  a  bad  heart,  that  does  not 
love  God,  we  want  to  do  wrong.  And  now 
Adam  and  Eve  made  their  hearts  bad,  and 
wicked,  by  sin. 

And  they  not  only  made  their  own  hearts 
wicked,  but  after  a  while,  when  their  little  chil- 
dren were  born,  these  children  had  wicked 
hearts,  too,  because  children  must  be  like  their 
parents. 

And  this  is  the  reason  why  all  the  little 
children,  and  all  the  men  and  women  in  the 


THE    STOBY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  13 

world,  were  born  with  wicked  hearts;  because 
Adam  and  Eve  disobeyed  God,  and  ate  of  the 
forbidden  fruit  in  the  garden  of  Eden.  It  is 
the  reason  why  you  and  I  have  wicked 
hearts,  which  so  often  make  us  want  to  do 
wrong. 

But  now  I  will  tell  you  who  came  down  from 
heaven  to  change  our  wicked  hearts,  and  make 
them  good  hearts,  so  that  we  shall  love  God 
and  want  to  do  right. 

Far  across  the  great  ocean,  where  the  big 
ships  sail,  there  is  a  land  that  used  to  be  called 
the  land  of  Israel.  In  that  land,  more  than 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago,  a  young  woman 
lived  whose  name  was  Mary.  And  God  sent 
one  of  his  good  angels  down  from  heaven  to 
speak  to  Mary. 

When  she  saw  the  angel  she  was  afraid. 
But  he  told  her  not  to  be  afraid,  for  he  said 
that  God  was  pleased  with  her,  and  would 
give  her  a  little  son  whose  name  should  be 
Jesus.  And  Jesus  should  be  a  King,  the 
angel  said,  greater  than  any  king  in  the  world, 
because  he  would  be  the  Son  of  God. 

After  the  angel  had  told  Mary  this,  he  went 
up  to  heaven  again.  Now  Mary  was  not  rich, 
or  great,  she  was  only  a  poor  young  woman. 


14  THE   STORY    OF    THE    OOSPEL. 

And  her  husband  was  j)oor,  too;  his  name  was 
Joseph,  and  he  was  a  carpenter. 

After  these  things  Mary  and  Joseph  came  to 
a  city  named  Bethlehem.  They  did  not  live  in 
Bethlehem;  it  was  not  their  home.  They 
came  there  to  stay  only  a  little  while,  so  they 
went  to  the  inn,  or  place  where  travelers 
stopped,  to  sleep. 

But  the  inn  was  full  of  people  and  there  was 
no  room  for  them.  Then  they  went  into  the 
stable  to  sleep.  And  while  they  Avere  there, 
God  gave  Mary  the  little  son  that  the  angel 
had  j>romised  her. 

It  was  not  in  a  beautiful  house,  such  as  rich 
people  have,  that  Jesus  was  born.  He  was 
born  in  the  stable  in  Bethlehem.  Perhaps  the 
cows  and  oxen  were  around  him,  lying  down 
asleep,  or  eating  their  food  out  of  the  troughs, 
or  mangers. 

And  his  mother  had  no  nice  bed,  or  cradle, 
to  lay  him  in,  there  in  the  stable.  So,  when 
she  had  wrapt  some  clothes  around  him,  she 
laid  him  in  one  of  the  mangers  for  his 
cradle. 

Now  in  that  country  the  people  used  to  have 
a  great  many  sheep,  and  these  sheep  stayed  out 
in  the  fields  to  eat  the  grass.     But  the  fields 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  15 

had  no  fences  around  them,  to  keep  the  sheep 
from  getting  lost. 

And  beside  the  danger  of  getting  lost,  there 
were  wild  beasts  in  that  country,  such  as  wolves 
and  bears,  that  sometimes  came  into  the  fields 
to  kill  the  sheep.  Therefore  somebody  had  to 
stay  with  them  all  the  time,  to  keep  them  from 
getting  lost,  or  killed. 

The  men  who  stayed  with  them  were  called 
shepherds.  They  stayed  with  the  sheep  not 
only  in  the  day,  but  in  the  night,  too,  for  that 
was  the  time  when  the  wild  beasts  would  come 
to  kill  them. 

And  on  the  night  that  Jesus  was  born,  some 
shepherds  were  keeping  watch  over  their  flocks 
out  in  the  field.  And,  all  at  once,  a  bright  light 
shone  around  them,  and  an  angel  came  down 
from  heaven  and  spoke  to  them.  The  shep- 
herds saw  the  angel,  and  heard  his  voice,  and 
they  were  very  much  afraid;  for,  I  suppose, 
they  had  never  seen  an  angel  before. 

But  the  angel  told  them  not  to  be  afraid,  for 
he  had  come  to  bring  good  news  to  them,  and 
to  all  the  people.  There  had  been  born  for 
them,  he  said,  in  the  city  of  Bethlehem,  a  little 
child,  to  be  their  Saviour,  that  is,  to  save  them 
from  being  punished  for  their  sins.     And  they 


16  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

would  know  this  little  child  by  finding  him 
laid  in  a  manger. 

As  soon  as  the  angel  had  told  the  shepherds 
this,  there  came  a  great  many  more  angels  from 
heaven,  and  they  all  began  to  speak,  and  to 
praise  God,  and  to  tell  how  good  and  kind  he 
is  to  the  people  who  live  in  this  world.  Then 
the  angels  went  away,  up  into  heaven  again. 

When  they  were  gone,  the  shepherds  said  to 
one  another,  Let  us  go  now  to  Bethlehem  and 
see  this  Saviour,  that  God  has  sent  his  angel 
to  tell  us  about.  So  they  left  their  sheep  in 
the  field  and  made  haste  to  Bethlehem,  and 
they  came  into  the  stable.  There  they  found 
Mary,  and  Joseph  her  husband,  and  the  little 
child  lying  in  a  manger.  And  they  were  glad 
when  they  saw  Jesus. 

Afterward  they  went  out  and  told  other  per- 
sons what  the  angel  had  said  to  them  about 
him.  And  all  the  people  wondered  at  what 
they  told  them.  Then  the  shepherds  went  back 
to  their  sheep  in  the  field.  And,  as  they  went, 
they  thanked  God,  because  he  had  sent  his 
angel  to  tell  them  about  Jesus,  and  had  let  them 
2:0  to  see  him  in  the  stable  in  Bethlehem. 

Now  there  was  in  the  land  of  Israel  another 
city,  named  Jerusalem.     It  was  a  larger  city 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  17 

than  Bethlehem;  it  had  many  more  houses, 
and  a  great  many  more  people  living  in  it. 

The  king  of  the  land  lived  there.  His  name 
was  Herod.  He  was  king  over  all  the  people 
who  lived  in  the  land  of  Israel.  These  people 
were  called  Israelites,  or  Jews.  But  Herod, 
their  king,  was  a  wicked  and  cruel  man. 

After  Jesus  was  born,  some  men  who  lived 
in  a  far  country  came  to  Jerusalem.  These 
men  were  wise  men,  that  is,  they  knew  a  great 
deal.  They  used  to  spend  a  great  deal  of  time 
in  looking  up  at  the  sky,  and  watching  the  stars, 
trying  to  learn  all  about  them. 

And  while  they  were  in  their  own  country, 
they  saw  a  star  up  in  the  sky  that  was  dif- 
ferent from  all  the  other  stars  they  had  ever 
seen  before.  God  had  sent  that  star  for  the 
wise  men  to  see,  so  they  might  know  that  Jesus 
was  born. 

And  because  they  wanted  to  see  Jesus,  and 
worship  him,  they  left  their  own  homes  and 
their  own  land,  to  come  to  the  land  of  Israel. 
It  was  a  long  journey,  over  mountains,  arid 
rivers,  and  lonely  deserts,  but  they  did  not  turn 
back  because  they  were  tired  of  the  way ;  they 
kept  on,  until  they  came  to  Jerusalem. 

But  when  they  came  there  they  could  not 


18  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

find  Jesus.  Therefore  they  spoke  to  the  peo- 
ple, and  said,  Where  is  the  little  child  that  is 
born  to  be  king  of  the  Jews?  for  we  have  seen 
his  star  in  our  own  land,  and  have  come  to 
worship  him. 

When  Herod,  the  king,  heard  what  the  wise 
men  said,  he  was  troubled.  He  did  not  like  to 
hear  them  call  the  little  child,  King.  It  made 
him  afraid  that,  some  day,  this  little  child  would 
grow  up  and  be  king  over  the  Jews  instead  of 
himself. 

Therefore  Herod  was  jealous  of  the  little 
child,  and  he  told  some  of  his  servants  to  find 
out  for  him  where  Jesus  was  born.  When  he 
heard  it  was  in  Bethlehem,  he  called  the  wise 
men  to  him,  and  asked  them  all  about  the  star 
they  had  seen  in  their  own  land. 

Then  he  commanded  them  to  go  to  Bethle- 
hem, and  look  for  the  young  child,  and,  when 
they  had  found  him,  to  come  back  and  bring 
him  word.  For  Herod  said  that  he  wanted  to 
go  there  and  worship  Jesus  too.  But  he  said 
this  not  because  he  really  wanted  to  worship 
him;  it  was  because' he  wanted  to  put  him  to 
death. 

So  the  wise  men  left  Jerusalem,  and  started 
to  go  to  the  city  of  Bethlehem.     And,  as  they 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  19 

were  going,  they  saw  the  same  star  that  they 
had  seen  in  their  own  land. 

AVhen  they  saw  the  star  they  were  very  glad; 
for  instead  of  standing  still  up  in  the  sky,  like 
other  stars,  it  moved  on  before  them  and  showed 
them  the  way,  till  it  led  them  to  Bethlehem. 
And  there  it  stood  still,  right  over  the  house 
where  the  young  child  was.  And  the  wise  men 
went  into  the  house  and  saw  the  young  child, 
with  Mary  his  mother,  and  they  bowed  down 
and  worshipped  him. 

In  those  days  persons  who  came  to  visit 
kings,  brought  presents  with  them;  and  these 
wise  men  brought  presents  for  Jesus.  And  now 
they  took  out  their  presents  and  gave  them  to 
him. 

They  gave  him  three  things — gold,  and 
frankincense,  and  myrrh.  Gold,  you  know, 
is  taken  out  of  the  ground.  Many  beautiful 
things  are  made  of  it,  such  as  earrings,  and 
bracelets,  and  necklaces;  money,  too,  is  made 
of  gold.  Frankincense  and  myrrh  are  gums 
that  come  out  from  the  sides  of  trees.  When 
they  are  burned  they  send  up  a  smoke  that  is 
sweet  and  pleasant  to  smell. 

The  people  in  that  land  thought  a  great  deal 
of  frankincense  and  myrrh,  and  loved  to  have 


20  THE   SffORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

them.  Therefore  the  wise  men  brought  them 
as  presents  for  Jesus,  when  they  wanted  to 
honor  him  as  a  king. 

But,  while  they  were  in  Bethlehem,  the  wise 
men  had  a  dream.  In  that  dream  God  spoke  to 
them  and  told  them  not  to  go  back  to  Jerusalem, 
to  tell  Herod  where  Jesus  was,  as  he  had  com- 
manded them  to.  So  when  they  left  Bethlehem, 
they  went  back  to  their  own  land  by  another  way. 

When  Herod  found  they  had  disobeyed  him, 
he  was  angry,  and  then  he  did  a  very  wicked 
and  cruel  thing.  He  sent  his  servants  to 
Bethlehem,  to  kill  all  the  little  children  there 
who  were  not  more  than  two  years  old.  He 
did  this  because  he  thought  that  among  them 
Jesus  would  be  killed. 

But,  although  the  other  little  children  were 
killed,  Jesus  was  not.  For  before  Herod's 
servants  came  to  Bethlehem,  God  sent  an  angel 
there,  to  tell  Joseph  that  he  should  take  the 
young  child  and  his  mother,  and  flee  away  into 
another  country,  called  Egypt,  where  Herod 
could  not  find  them. 

So  Joseph  got  up  in  the  night,  when  no  one 
could  see  him,  and  he  took  Mary,  and  the  young 
child,  and  fled  away  into  Egyj)t.  There  he 
stayed  till  Herod  was  dead. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  21 


9 


Then  God  sent  his  angel,  again,  to  Joseph, 
to  tell  him,  that  now  he  should  go  back  into 
the  land  of  Israel.  So  Joseph  brought  Mary 
and  the  young  child  back  into  that  land,  and 
they  came  into  a  city  named  Nazareth  and 
lived  there. 

I  have  told  you  about  the  city  of  Jerusalem, 
that  it  was  a  large  city,  with  a  great  many  peo- 
ple,  and  a  great  many  houses  in  it. 

But  there  was  one  house  in  Jerusalem  more 
beautiful  than  all  the  rest.  This  was  the  tem- 
ple, or  church,  where  the  Jews  used  to  come  to 
worship,  and  pray  to  God.  It  stood  on  the  top 
of  a  hill,  and  was  built  of  stones  of  white 
marble.  The  gates  that  led  up  to  it,  were 
covered  with  silver  and  gold. 

The  Jews  who  lived  in  Jerusalem  often  went 
up  to  the  temple.  But  once  every  year,  all  the 
men  who  lived  in  the  land  of  Israel  used  to  go 
there ;  and  then  they  had  a  feast  called  the  feast 
of  the  Passover. 

God  had  told  the  people  of  Israel  to  have 
this  feast.  It  was  to  make  them  remember 
something.  I  will  tell  you  what  it  was  to 
make  them  remember. 

A  great  many  years  before  this  time,  the 
people  of  Israel  had  been  slaves.     To  be  a 


22  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

slave  is  to  belong  to  some  person,  so  that  he 
can  make  you  do  whatever  he  chooses,  just  as 
if  you  were  his  horse,  or  his  dog. 

And  a  great  many  years  before  this  time,  the 
people  of  Israel  had  been  slaves  to  the  king  of 
Egypt.  And  this  king  was  very  cruel  to  them. 
He  told  his  servants  to  make  them  work  very 
hard,  and  to  beat  them,  and  even  to  put  their 
little  children  to  death. 

Then  God  was  displeased  with  the  king,  and 
commanded  him  to  let  the  people  of  Israel  go 
out  of  his  land ;  but  he  would  not.  Therefore 
God  sent  many  punishments  on  him. 

But  one  of  these  punishments  was  more 
dreadful  than  all  the  rest.  It  was  this :  In 
the  middle  of  the  night  God  came  into  the 
king's  land,  and  he  sent  an  angel  into  the  king's 
house,  and  into  all  the  houses  where  his  ser- 
vants lived.  And  the  angel  made  the  king's 
oldest  son  to  die,  and  the  oldest  sons  of  all  his 
servants,  so  that  in  every  house  there  was  one 
dead. 

But  God  did  not  send  his  angel  into  the 
houses  where  the  people  of  Israel  lived.  He 
told  the  angel  to  pass  over  their  houses,  and 
not  to  hurt  any  one  in  them. 

Then  the  king  of  Egypt  was  in  great  trouble, 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  23 

and  was  very  much  afraid,  at  what  the  angel 
had  done.  And,  because  he  was  afraid,  he  let 
the  people  of  Israel  go  out  of  his  land,  as  God 
had  commanded  him  to.  They  went  out  that 
same  night  and  were  his  slaves  no  more. 

But  before  they  went,  God  told  them  to  have 
a  supper,  or  feast.  At  this  feast  they  ate  a 
lamb  that  was  roasted  with  fire.  They  ate  a 
lamb  in  every  house  where  the  people  of 
Israel  lived,  just  before  they  started  to  go  out 
of  Egypt, 

And  because  God  wanted  the  people  of  Israel 
to  remember  that  night,  and  how  kind  he  had 
been  to  them  in  setting  them  free  from  the  king 
of  Egypt,  he  told  them  to  have  that  feast,  on 
that  same  night,  every  year  afterward. 

This  was  the  feast  that  all  the  men  in  the 
land  of  Israel  came  to  eat  in  Jerusalem. 

It  was  called  the  feast  of  the  Passover,  be- 
cause, as  we  have  read,  the  angel  passed  over 
their  houses  in  Egypt  and  did  no  harm  to  any 
one  in  them.  But  he  went  into  the  houses  of 
all  the  Egyptians  and  made  their  oldest  sons 
to  die. 


24  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


CHAPTER  II. 

MARY  AND  JOSEPH  BRING  JESUS  TO  THE  PASSOVER.  JOHN  THE 
BAPTIST  PREACHES  IN  THE  WILDERNESS,  AND  BAPTIZES 
JESUS.  JESUS  IS  TEMPTED.  HE  CHANGES  WATER  INTO 
WINE.      JOHN  THE  BAPTIST  IS  PUT  TO  DEATH. 


T\7E  have  read  that  when  Mary  and  Joseph 

'  '  came  back  from  Egypt,  into  the  land  of 
Israel,  they  went  to  live  in  the  city  of  Naza- 
reth. And  at  the  time  I  am  now  telling  you 
about,  they  still  lived  in  that  city. 

Nazareth  was  a  long  way  from  Jerusalem — 
as  much  as  seventy  miles  from  there.  Yet 
Mary  and  Joseph  used  to  come  up  to  Jerusalem 
every  year,  to  eat  of  the  feast  of  the  j^assover. 

But  they  would  not  come  this  long  way  alone. 
Some  of  their  friends,  and  neighbors,  who 
wanted  to  eat  of  the  feast,  would  come  with 
them,  and  they  would  travel  together.  It  was 
pleasanter  for  them  to  travel  together,  and 
keep  each  other  company. 

And  beside  this,  they  could  help  each  other, 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  25 

if  enemies,  or  robbers,  should  try  to  do  them 
harm  while  they  were  on  their  journey.  For 
seventy  miles  was  a  long  journey  in  that 
country.  It  took  several  days  to  go  so  far. 
They  had  no  railroads,  or  stages,  to  ride  in,  as 
we  have  now.  There  were  no  such  things  in 
those  days,  and  the  people,  very  often,  walked 
all  the  way. 

So,  as  we  have  read,  Mary  and  Joseph  used 
to  go  up  every  year  to  Jerusalem,  to  keep  the 
feast  of  the  j)assover.  And  when  Jesus  was 
twelve  years  old  they  took  him  with  them. 

And  they  came  to  Jerusalem  and  stayed 
there  seven  days.  Then  they  started,  with 
their  friends,  to  go  back  to  their  home  in 
Nazareth.  And  they  thought  Jesus  was  in 
the  company  that  went  with  them:  so  they 
journeyed  all  that  day. 

But  at  night,  when  they  stopped  to  rest  and 
sleep,  they  looked  for  him  and  could  not  find 
him.  Therefore  Mary  and  Joseph  were  anxious 
about  him,  and  they  went  all  the  way  back  to 
Jerusalem  to  seek  for  him. 

When  they  came  there  they  found  him  in 
the  temple.  He  was  talking  with  the  teachers, 
and  wise  men,  hearing  what  they  said  and 
asking  them  questions.     And  all  the  people 


26  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

who  heard  him,  were  astonished  at  the  way  he 
could  talk  with  them;  for  he  was  only  a  child, 
but  they  were  men  of  great  learning. 

And  Mary  came  to  him  and  asked  him  why 
he  had  stayed  behind  in  Jerusalem,  and  not 
gone  with  them,  when  they  left  to  go  back  to 
their  home  in  Nazareth.  For  she  said,  that 
Joseph  and  she  had  been  anxious  and  troubled 
about  him. 

But  Jesus  asked  her  if  she  did  not  know 
that  he  must  be  doing  the  things,  which  his 
Father  had  sent  him  into  this  world  to  do. 
His  Father,  that  is,  God,  had  sent  Jesus  down 
into  this  world  to  save  us  from  being  punished 
for  our  sins. 

But  he  sent  him  not  only  for  this,  but  also 
to  teach  us  how  to  do  right,  and  to  please  God. 
And  now,  although  Jesus  was  only  tAvelve 
years  old,  he  was  beginning  to  speak  with  the 
people  about  these  things. 

Yet,  when  Mary  and  Joseph  came  for  him, 
he  went  back  with  them  to  their  home  in  Naza- 
reth. And  he  lived  with  them,  and  obeved  all 
that  they  said  to  him.  And  there  in  Nazareth 
he  grew  up  to  be  a  man ;  and  the  persons  who 
were  with  him  loved  him. 

But  the  people  in  the  land  of  Israel  did  not 


THE    STORY    OF  THE    GOSPEL.  27 

know  that  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  for  the  time 
had  not  yet  come  for  them  to  be  told  this. 

There  was,  in  the  land  of  Israel,  a  man  called 
John  the  Baptist.  He  was  a  prophet.  A 
prophet  is  a  person  who  can  tell  what  things 
are  going  to  happen.  You  and  I  cannot  tell 
what  is  going  to  happen.  We  can  tell  what 
happened  yesterday,  and  the  day  before,  but  we 
cannot  tell  what  will  happen  to-morrow,  or  the 
day  after  that.  We  cannot  tell  till  the  time 
comes. 

But  God's  prophets  wrere  able  to  tell  what 
things  wrould  happen,  before  the  time  came. 
They  were  able  to  do  this,  because  God  told 
them  about  those  things. 

And  John  was  a  prophet,  and  he  was  a  very 
good  and  holy  man.  He  lived  out  in  the  wil- 
derness, that  is,  in  the  lonely  country  where 
very  few  persons  lived.  He  had  lived  there 
ever  since  he  was  a  little  child. 

He  was  dressed  in  a  garment,  or  coat,  made 
out  of  the  coarse  hair  that  grows  on  the  backs 
of  camels.  This  coat  was  fastened  around  his 
waist  with  a  girdle,  or  belt,  of  leather.  For 
his  food  he  had  locusts,  and  wild  honey. 

Locusts  are  an  insect  something  like  a  grass- 
hopper.    There  were  great  numbers  of  them 


28  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

in  that  country,  and  the  poor  people  there  used 
to  eat  them.  They  eat  them  still  in  the  coun- 
tries in  that  part  of  the  world.  They  roast 
them  in  an  oven,  or  over  the  fire,  and  mix  a 
little  salt  with  them,  and  so  make  them  ready 
for  food. 

John  ate  locusts  and  he  ate  wild  honey  also. 
Wild  honey  was  the  honey  that  the  bees  made 
in  the  woods,  in  hollow  trees,  or  in  holes  in  the 
rocks.  John  could  find  both  the  locusts  and 
the  wild  honey,  out  in  the  wilderness  where 
he  lived. 

And  there,  while  he  was  alone,  he  had  plenty 
of  time  to  think  about  God,  and  to  pray  to  him, 
and  to  read  in  God's  Book. 

But  now  Jesus  was  grown  up  from  being  a 
little  child  in  the  manger  in  Bethlehem,  to  be 
a  man.  And  the  time  had  come  when  the  Jews, 
that  is,  the  people  who  lived  in  the  land  of 
Israel,  were  to  be  told  that  he  was  the  Son  of 
God.  And  God  chose  John  the  Baptist  as  the 
one  who  should  tell  them  of  this. 

Then  John  went  to  a  place  in  the  wilderness 
that  was  near  to  a  river,  called  the  river  Jordan. 
And  great  numbers  of  the  Jews  came  there  to 
hear  what  he  would  say. 

And  John   told   them  that  very  soon   the 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  20 

Son  of  God  was  coming  among  them,  and 
that  they  should  make  ready  for  him  to  come, 
not  by  putting  on  their  best  clothes,  or  by 
putting  their  houses  in  order,  but  by  repenting 
of  their  sins. 

To  repent  of  anything  is  to  be  sorry  for  it. 
But  there  are  different  ways  of  being  sorry. 

Once  there  were  two  men  taken  to  prison, 
and  shut  up  in  a  small  room  called  a  cell. 
This  cell  had  an  iron  door  to  it,  and  iron  bars 
in  the  window,  so  that  the  men  could  not  get 
out.  They  were  put  there  because  they  had 
taken  what  did  not  belong  to  them ;  they  had 
stolen  something. 

And  they  were  both  of  them  very  sorry  for 
what  they  had  done.  But  one  was  sorry  only 
because  he  had  to  be  punished.  As  soon  as  he 
should  get  out  of  prison,  he  intended  to  steal 
again.  The  other  was  sorry  because  he  had 
done  wickedly,  and  he  determined  when  he  got 
out,  to  be  an  honest  man  and  steal  no  more. 

Now  this  last  man  was  the  one  who  repented 
of  his  sin.  And  John  told  the  Jews  who  came 
out  in  the  wilderness  to  hear  him,  that  they 
must  make  ready  for  Jesus  to  come  among 
them  by  repenting  of  their  sins. 

And  the  Jews  did  as  John  told  them :  thev 


30  THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

repented  of  all  the  sins  they  had  done,  that  is, 
they  were  sorry  for  doing  them,  because  it 
displeased  God,  and  was  wicked,  and  they 
determined  to  do  them  no  more. 

And  after  they  had  repented,  John  took 
them  down  with  him  into  the  river  Jordan, 
where  the  water  was  not  too  deep,  and  he 
baptized  them  in  the  water. 

Being  baptized  means  the  washing  away  of 
our  sins.  It  means  that  as  water  washes  away 
what  soils  our  bodies,  so  God's  Holy  Spirit 
washes  away  the  sin  from  our  hearts..  And 
when  the  Holy  Spirit  does  this,  our  wicked 
hearts  are  made  new,  and  good,  and  clean. 

And  now,  while  John  was  baptizing  the 
people,  Jesus  left  his  home  in  Nazareth  and 
came  out  into  the  wilderness,  for  John  to 
baptize  him  also. 

But  when  John  saw  him  he  did  not  want  to 
baptize  him.  For  John  knew  that  Jesus  was 
the  Son  of  God,  and  that  his  heart  was  without 
any  sin,  and  had  always  been  clean. 

But  Jesus  told  him  that  although  he  could 
not  understand  it  now,  yet  it  was  right  for  John 
to  baj:>tize  him.  Then  John  went  down  with  him 
into  the  river  Jordan  and  baptized  him  there. 

Perhaps  you  may  say,  Why  did  Jesus  want 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  31 

to  be  baptized,  when  his  heart  was  without  any 
sin,  and  had  always  been  clean?  I  will  tell 
you.  He  did  not  want  to  be  baptized  for  him- 
self, but  for  us,  and  to  set  us  an  example  of 
what  we  ought  to  do. 

And  after  he  had  been  baptized,  as  he  was 
coming  up  out  of  the  water,  Jesus  prayed. 
And  then  a  very  wonderful  thing  happened. 
The  sky  above  him  opened,  and  there  came 
down  from  heaven  what  seemed  to  be  a  dove. 
But  it  was  not  a  dove,  it  was  the  Holy  Spirit 
in  the  form,  or  shape,  of  a  dove. 

And  the  dove  rested  on  the  head  of  Jesus. 
At  the  same  time  there  was  a  voice  spoke  out 
of  heaven.  It  was  God's  voice,  and  it  said,  This 
is  my  beloved  Son,  with  whom  I  am  well 
pleased. 

And  Jesus  left  the  place  where  John  was 
baptizing,  and  went  out  into  the  lonely  wilder- 
ness ;  and  he  stayed  there  forty  days  and  forty 
nights,  praying  to  God.  And  no  one  was  with 
him  but  the  wild  beasts;  but  the  wild  beasts 
could  not  hurt  him,  for  he  had  power  over 
them  to  keep  them  from  doing  him  any  harm. 

And  through  all  those  forty  days  and  forty 
nights,  Jesus  fasted,  and  ate  no  food,  and  after- 
ward he  was  hungry. 


32  THE  STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

We  have  read  how  Satan  tempted  Eve  to  sin 
in  the  garden  of  Eden,  and  so  our  hearts  were 
made  wicked.  This  had  happened  long  before 
the  time  we  are  reading  about  now,  and  Adam 
and  Eve  had  been  dead  for  many  hundreds  of 
years.  But  Satan,  that  wicked  spirit,  was  not 
dead ;  for,  as,  I  have  told  you,  spirits  never  die. 

And  now,  when  Jesus  had  come  down  from 
heaven  to  make  our  hearts  good  again,  Satan 
thought  he  would  tempt  him  to  sin,  as  he  had 
tempted  Eve  in  the  garden.  So  he  went  out 
into  the  wilderness,  where  Jesus  was,  to  tempt 
him. 

Now  whenever  Satan  is  going  to  tempt  any 
person  to  do  wrong,  he  finds  out  what  thing  it 
is  that  person  wants  most.  Then  he  tries  to 
make  him  do  wrong  to  get  that  thing.  He 
knew  that  Jesus  had  fasted,  and  wanted  food, 
and  he  thought  he  would  make  him  do  wrong 
to  get  it. 

And  when  he  came  to  the  place  where  Jesus 
was,  Satan  looked  down  on  the  ground  and  saw 
some  stones  lying  there.  Then  he  spoke  to 
Jesus,  and  told  him,  if  he  were  the  Son  of  God, 
to  change  those  stones  into  bread,  so  that  he 
might  have  food  to  eat,  because  he  was  hungry. 

But  Jesus  knew  why  Satan  had  come,  and 


THE    STORY    OF    THE'  GOSPEL.  33 

although  he  could  have  changed  the  stones 
into  bread  by  only  telling  them  to  be  changed, 
he  would  not  do  it  to  obey  Satan.  He  told 
Satan  that  the  Bible  says  we  must  be  more 
careful  to  obey  God,  and  do  right,  than  we 
are  even  to  get  bread  when  we  are  hungry. 

Eemember  this  children,  if  you  should  ever 
be  hungry,  and  be  tempted  to  sin  to  get  food; 
think  how  your  Saviour  did,  when  he  was 
hungry,  and  rather  go  without  food  than  do 
wrong  to  get  it. 

When  Satan  found  that  Jesus  would  not 
change  the  stones  into  bread,  he  tried  another 
way  to  tempt  him.  He  brought  him  away 
from  the  wilderness  into  the  city  of  Jerusalem, 
and  took  him  up  to  a  very  high  place  on  the 
wall,  or  roof,  of  the  temple. 

And  as  he  stood  with  Jesus  on  the  edge  of 
this  high  place,  Satan  told  him  to  throw  him- 
self down  from  there,  because,  if  he  were  the 
Son  of  God,  the  angels  would  come  and  catch 
him,  so  that  he  should  not  be  dashed  to  pieces 
in  falling. 

You  know  what  it  is,  children,  to  have  some 
one  dare  you  to  do  wrong.  It  was  this  that 
Satan  did  to  Jesus.  He  dared  him  to  throw 
himself  down  from  that  high  place,  because, 


34  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

he  said,  that  if  he  were  God's  Son,  he  need  not 
be  afraid  of  getting  hurt  in  the  fall. 

But,  though  Jesus  knew  that  he  could  easily 
step  off  from  that  high  place,  and  throw  him- 
self down,  and  not  be  hurt  at  all,  yet  he  knew 
too,  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  do  this  only 
because  Satan  told  him  to  do  it. 

So  he  refused  to  throw  himself  down,  and 
answered  Satan,  that  the  Bible  says  we  must 
not  put  ourselves  in  danger,  just  to  try  whether 
God  will  save  us  from  harm. 

Then -Satan  tempted  Jesus  once  more.  He 
took  him  away  from  the  temple,  and  brought 
him  up  on  to  a  very  high  mountain.  And 
from  the  top  of  that  mountain,  Satan  showed 
Jesus  all  the  nations,  and  kingdoms,  that  were 
in  the  whole  world. 

Jesus  could  see  their  beautiful  cities,  and 
their  great  riches,  and  everything  that  was  in 
them.  Then  Satan  said  that  if  Jesus  would 
only  kneel  down  and  worship  him,  he  should 
be  king  over  all  those  nations  and  have  them 
for  his  own. 

It  was  to  try  and  persuade  him  to  do  this, 
that  Satan  had  come  out  into  the  wilderness. 
He  did  not  care  that  Jesus  should  turn  the 
stones   into  bread,  or  that   he   should  throw 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  35 

himself  down  from  the  high  place  on  the 
temple.  He  asked  Jesus  to  do  these  things 
only  to  get  him  in  the  way  of  obeying  him. 

What  he  did  care  for  was,  that  Jesus  should 
be  willing  to  mind  him,  and  take  him  for  his 
master.  That  was  the  reason  he  promised  him 
all  those  kingdoms  for  his  own,  if  he  would 
only  kneel  down  and  worship  him. 

But  when  he  promised  this,  Jesus  told  Satan 
to  go  from  him,  because  the  Bible  said  that 
God  was  the  only  one  to  be  worshipped,  and 
that  we  must  obey  him  alone. 

When  Satan  saw  that  he  could  not  make 
Jesus  obey  him  by  this,  his  principal  tempta- 
tion, he  went  away  and  left  him.  And  then 
angels  came  and  waited  on  him. 

Let  us  thank  Jesus  for  not  doing  as  Satan 
tempted  him  to  do.  Eve  did  as  he  tempted 
her,  and  so  she  caused  us  all  to  have  wicked 
hearts  and  be  sinners.  But  Jesus  would  not 
do  as  Satan  tempted  him,  and  now  he  is  able 
to  give  us  new  and  good  hearts  and  to  make  us 
God's  children. 

After  this  Jesus  went  back  to  the  place 
where  John  was  baptizing  the  people  in  the 
river  Jordan.  And  some  men  came  to  him 
there,  and  they  stayed  with  him  that  he  might 


36  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

teach  tliem.  Therefore  these  men  were  his 
disciples;  for  a  disciple  is  a  person  who  comes 
to  learn  something  from  another. 

And  Jesus  took  his  disciples  and  went  to  a 
city  called  Cana.  And  there  was  a  marriage 
in  that  city.  The  mother  of  Jesus  was  there, 
and  both  Jesus  and  his  disciples  were  invited 
to  the  marriage. 

And  a  feast  was  made  ready  for  the  persons 
who  should  come.  Food  was  put  on  the  table 
for  them  to  eat,  and  wine  for  them  to  drink. 
But,  before  the  end  of  the  feast,  the  wine  was 
all  gone.  And  the  mother  of  Jesus  said  to  him, 
They  have  no  more  wine.  Then  she  told  the 
servants  who  were  there,  to  do  whatever  he 
should  say  to  them. 

Now  there  were  in  the  house  six  large  stone 
jars,  or  water-pots,  such  as  the  Jews  kept  to 
hold  water.  Jesus  said  to  the  servants,  Fill  the 
water-pots  with  water.  And  they  brought 
water  and  filled  them  up  to  the  brim. 

Then  he  said,  Take  some  out  now,  and  carry 
it  to  the  chief  man  of  the  feast.  And  the 
servants  took  some  out  and  carried  it  to  the 
chief  man,  or  governor,  of  the  feast,  and  the 
governor  tasted  it,  and  found  it  was  wine. 

Jesus  had  changed  the  water  into  wine.    He 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  37 

had  not  touched  it,  or  put  anything  into  it,  but 
had  only  told  it  to  be  wine ;  and,  in  a  moment, 
it  was  wine.  This  was  a  miracle;  for  a  miracle 
is  some  wonderful  thing  which  only  God  can 
do.  Jesus  could  do  miracles  because  he  was 
the  Son  of  God,  and  had  power  like  God. 

This  was  the  first  miracle  he  did  to  show  the 
people  that  he  had  this  power.  We  shall  read 
afterward  of  many  miracles  that  he  did  for  the 
people  to  see. 

You  remember  that  when  Jesus  was  born  in 
Bethlehem,  the  king  who  ruled  over  the  land 
of  Israel  was  named  Herod.  It  was  he  who 
sent  his  servants  to  kill  all  the  little  children 
in  Bethlehem,  because  he  hoped  that,  among 
them,  Jesus  would  be  killed. 

But  God  sent  an  angel  to  tell  Josej)h  that  he 
should  take  the  young  child  and  his  mother, 
and  flee  away,  into  the  land  of  Egypt,  where 
Herod's  servants  could  not  find  him.  And 
Joseph  took  the  young  child  and  his  mother, 
and  fled  into  Egypt ;  and  while  they  were  there, 
King  Herod  died. 

After  Herod  was  dead  his  son  was  made  king. 
This  son's  name  was  Herod,  too.  He  was  a  bad 
man,  like  his  father,  and  at  the  time  I  am  now 
telling  you  about,  he  did  a  very  wicked  thing. 


38  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

He  persuaded  his  brother's  wife,  whose  name 
was  Herodias,  to  leave  his  brother,  and  come 
and  be  his  wife.  This  was  disobeying  God. 
Then  John  the  Baptist  came  to  Herod  and  told 
him  he  had  done  wickedly. 

When  Herodias  heard  what  John  said,  she 
was  very  angry ;  for  she  wanted  to  be  the  king's 
wife,  because  that  made  her  rich  and  great. 
And  she  went  to  the  king  and  asked  him  to 
put  John  to  death. 

But  Herod  was  afraid  to  put  John  to  death; 
for  he  had  heard  him  preach,  and  knew  that 
he  was  a  good  man.  Yet  to  please  his  wife, 
Herod  took  John  and  bound  him  with  ropes, 
or  chains,  and  put  him  in  prison. 

While  John  was  in  prison  Herod's  birth- 
day came.  Then  Herod  made  a  great  feast 
and  invited  the  captains  in  his  army,  and  many 
other  great  men,  to  come  to  it. 

Now  Herodias  had  a  daughter  whose  name 
was  Salome,  and  Salome  knew  how  to  dance 
very  well.  So,  while  Herod  and  all  the  great 
men  sat  at  the  feast,  Salome  came  into  the 
room  and  danced  before  them.  And  Herod 
was  so  pleased  with  her  beautiful  dancing, 
he  promised  to  give  her  anything  she  wanted. 

It  was  foolish  and  wicked  in  Herod  to  make 
this  promise  to  Salome.    She  had  not  done  any- 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  39 

thing  to  deserve  it;  yet  he  made  it  to  her. 
Then  Salome  went  to  her  mother,  and  said, 
What  shall  I  ask  King  Herod  to  give  me  ? 

And  now,  I  am  sure,  you  could  not  think,  if  I 
did  not  tell  you,  what  it  was  this  wicked  woman 
said.  She  told  Salome  to  go  back  to  Herod 
and  tell  him,  that  she  wanted  him  to  send  to 
the  prison  and  have  John  the  Baptist's  head  cut 
off,  and  brought  to  her,  at  once,  in  a  large  dish. 

So  Salome  made  haste  back  to  the  king,  and 
asked  as  her  mother  had  told  her.  Then  Herod 
was  very  sorry,  for  he  did  not  want  to  put  John 
to  death.  And  he  should  have  told  her  that  he 
would  not  do  it.  For  when  we  have  promised 
to  do  a  thing  that  is  wicked,  we  should  ask 
God  to  forgive  us  for  making  the  promise, 
and  not  do  the  wicked  thing,  because  that 
would  only  make  our  sin  the  worse. 

Yet,  because  the  great  men  at  the  feast  had 
heard  him  promise,  and  because  he  was  ashamed 
to  seem  afraid  to  do  it,  Herod  sent  a  man  to 
the  prison  who  cut  off  John's  head,  and  brought 
it  in  a  large  dish  to  Salome,  and  she  took  it  to 
her  mother. 

When  John's  disciples  heard  what  Herod 
had  done,  they  came  and  took  up  his  dead  body 
and  buried  it  in  a  sepulchre;  and  then  they 
went  and  told  Jesus. 


40  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

JESUS  TALKS  WITH  THE  WOMAN  OF  SAMARIA.  HE  CURES  THE 
NOBLEMAN'S  SON ;  TEACHES  THE  PEOPLE ;  CASTS  AN 
EVIL  SPIRIT  OUT  OF  A  MAN;  CURES  PETER'S  WIFE'S 
MOTHER,  AND  A  MAN  WITH  THE  PALSY. 


JESUS  and  his  disciples  went  to  a  part  of 
the  land  called  Galilee.  And,  as  they  were 
going,  they  came  to  a  city  named  Sychar.  A 
little  way  out  of  this  city  was  a  well,  where  the 
people  came  to  draw  water. 

For,  in  that  country,  they  had  not  so  many 
rivers  and  streams  as  we  have  in  ours,  and  the 
people  had  to  draw  water  from  wells  that 
were  dug  deep  in  the  ground. 

It  was  in  the  hot  part  of  the  day,  and  Jesus, 
being  tired  with  his  journey,  sat  down  by  the 
well.  His  disciples  went  into  the  city  to  buy 
food,  and  left  him  alone. 

And  a  woman  came  out  of  the  city,  carrying 
her  water-pot,  to  draw  water.  Now  this  woman 
did  not  love  God  in  her  heart,  and  she  had 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  41 

done  many  things  to  disobey  him.  And  Jesus 
knew  this;  for  he  can  see  all  our  hearts,  and 
he  knows  of  everything  that  we  have  done. 
And  he  talked  with  the  woman,  and  told  her 
of  some  of  the  things  she  had  done,  long  ago, 
to  disobey  God. 

Then  she  was  astonished,  when  she  found 
that  he  knew  of  these  things.  And  she  said, 
Sir,  I  see  thou  art  a  prophet.  She  meant 
that  he  was  a  person  whom  God  told  of  things 
which  other  people  did  not  know.  And  she 
said  to  Jesus,  I  know  that  the  Saviour  is  coming 
into  the  world,  and,  when  he  comes,  he  will  tell 
us  all  things.  Jesus  said  to  her,  I  that  speak 
to  thee,  am  He. 

Then  the  woman  left  her  water-pot  and  made 
haste  back  to  the  city,  and  spoke  to  the  people 
there,  saying,  Come  and  see  a  man  that  told 
me  all  the  things  that  ever  I  did.  Is  not  this 
the  Saviour?  And  the  people  went  out  to  see 
Jesus,  and  they  begged  him  to  come  into 
their  city. 

So  he  came  there,  and  stayed  with  them  three 
days.  And  they  listened  to  the  things  that  he 
taught  them.  Then  they  said  to  the  woman, 
Now  we  believe  on  him,  not  from  what  thou 
didst  tell  us  about  him,  but  because  we  have 


42  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

heard  him,  ourselves,  and  know  that  he  is 
the  Son  of  God,  who  has  come  down  from 
heaven. 

After  this  Jesus  went  again  to  the  city  of 
Cana,  where  he  had  changed  the  water  into 
wine.  And  a  nobleman,  that  is,  a  great  and  rich 
man,  came  to  him  there.  This  nobleman  had  a 
son  who  was  very  sick,  and  he  came  and  asked 
Jesus  to  make  him  well. 

He  wanted  Jesus  to  go  to  his  home,  where 
his  son  was.  He  said,  Come  quickly,  before 
my  child  dies.  He  said  this  because  he  thought 
that  Jesus  would  have  to  go  and  see  his  son, 
before  he  could  make  him  well.  But  Jesus 
told  the  nobleman  to  go  back  to  his  home,  for 
his  son  should  get  well. 

And  the  nobleman  believed  what  Jesus  said, 
and  started  to  go  back  to  his  home,  which  was 
a  good  way  off.  But,  before  he  reached  there, 
some  of  his  servants  came  out  and  met  him, 
and  told  him,  that  his  son  was  well. 

Then  the  nobleman  asked  them  when  he 
began  to  get  better.  They  answered,  Yesterday, 
at  the  seventh  hour,  the  fever  left  him.  So 
the  nobleman  knew  that  it  was  at  the  same  time 
when  Jesus  said  to  him,  Thy  son  shall  get  well. 
And  when  he  and  his  family  saw  this  miracle 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  43 

which  Jesus  had  done,  they  all  believed  that 
he  was  the  Son  of  God. 

And  Jesus  came  to  the  city  of  Nazareth  where 
he  used  to  live  when  he  was  a  child,  with  Mary 
and  Joseph.  I  have  told  you  that  in  the  city 
of  Jerusalem  there  was  a  beautiful  temple,  or 
church,  where  the  Jews  came  to  worship 
God. 

But  those  Jews  who  lived  in  other  cities,  far 
away  from  Jerusalem,  could  not  go  there  every 
Sabbath  clay  to  worship ;  it  was  too  far.  There- 
fore they  built  smaller  churches  in  the  cities 
where  they  lived.  These  smaller  churches  were 
called  synagogues. 

There  was  a  synagogue  in  the  city  of  Na- 
zareth, where  Jesus  had  now  come.  And  he 
went  into  it  on  the  Sabbath  day,  and  many  of 
the  Jews  were  there.  Then  Jesus  spoke  to 
them,  and  told  them,  that  he  was  the  Saviour 
whom  God  had  sent  down  from  heaven.  But 
the  Jews  were  angry  when  he  said  this,  for 
they  would  not  believe  that  he  was  the  Saviour. 

And  they  took  hold  of  him  and  led  him  out 
of  the  synagogue,  to  the  top  of  a  steep  hill  on 
which  their  city  was  built,  that  they  might  throw 
him  down  from  there,  and  kill  him.  But 
because  he  had  the  power  of  God,  they  were 


44  THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

not  able  to  do  him  any  harm.  And  he  left 
them,  and  went  away  from  their  city. 

And  he  came  to  another  city,  called  Caper- 
naum, which  was  built  on  the  sea-shore.  As  he 
stood  on  the  shore,  near  to  the  water,  the  peoj3le 
crowded  around  him  to  hear  what  he  would 
teach  them.  And  Jesus  saw  two  boats  on  the 
shore,  which  belonged  to  men  who  sailed  out 
on  the  water  to  catch  fish. 

These  men  were  fishermen;  they  sold  the 
fish  they  caught  to  other  people,  and  in  this 
way  made  their  living.  They  were  not  in  their 
boats  now,  but  were  a  little  way  <3ff,  mending 
their  nets.  Nets  are  made  of  twine.  They 
are  what  fishermen  let  down  into  the  water  to 
catch  fish  with. 

But  sometimes  the  fish,  after  they  are  caught 
in  the  net,  try  so  hard  to  get  out  of  it,  that 
they  break,  or  tear,  the  net.  Or,  sometimes, 
branches  of  trees  that  are  floating  in  the  water, 
or  stones  lying  at  the  bottom,  catch  in  the  net 
and  tear  it. 

And  the  nets  that  these  men  had  been  fish- 
ing with,  were  torn,  and  now  they  were  a  little 
way  off,  on  the  shore,  mending  them.  One  of 
the  men  was  named  Peter,  and  he  had  a 
brother,  named  Andrew,  who  helped  him. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  45 

And  the  j^eople  crowded  around  Jesus,  on 
the  shore,  to  hear  him,  so  that  he  went  into 
Peter's  boat  and  asked  him  to  push  it  out  a 
little  way  from  the  land.  When  Peter  had 
done  this,  Jesus  sat  down  in  the  boat  and 
taught  the  people,  while  they  stood  listening  to 
him  on  the  shore. 

After  he  had  done  teaching  them,  he  told 
Peter  and  Andrew  to  sail  out  on  the  sea,  and 
let  down  their  net  into  the  water  to  catch  fish. 
Then  Peter  told  Jesus  they  had  been  trying  to 
catch  some  all  night,  but  had  caught  nothing. 
Yet,  he  said,  as  Jesus  commanded  it,  they 
would  let  down  their  net. 

And  when  they  had  done  this  they  caught 
a  great  many  fishes — so  many  that  their  net 
began  to  break,  because  it  could  not  hold  them 
all.  Then  Peter  and  Andrew  beckoned  to 
two  other  fishermen,  named  James  and  John, 
who  were  near,  that  they  should  come  and  help 
them. 

And  James  and  John  came  in  their  boat, 
and  helped  them  draw  up  the  net  out  of  the 
water.  And  when  they  had  taken  the  fish  out 
of  the  net,  they  loaded  both  boats  with  them; 
and  there  were  so  many  that  the  boats  began 
to  sink. 


46  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

It  was  Jesus  who  made  the  fish  come  to  the 
place  where  the  fisherman  could  catch  them. 
This  was  a  miracle,  like  turning  the  water 
into  wine,  and  like  curing  the  nobleman's  son. 

Jesus  did  this  miracle  on  purpose  for  Peter 
and  Andrew,  and  James  and  John,  to  see,  be- 
cause he  wanted  them  to  believe  on  him,  and 
be  his  disciples.  And  he  said  to  them,  Come 
with  me.  Then  they  left  their  boats,  and  their 
nets,  and  all  that  they  had,  and  went  with  him. 

And  on  the  Sabbath  day  Jesus  went  into  the 
synagogue  that  was  in  the  city  of  Capernaum, 
and  he  taught  the  j)eople  who  were  there. 
Among  them  was  a  man  who  had  an  evil 
spirit. 

I  have  told  you,  before,  about  evil  angels,  or 
spirits,  that  we  believe  they  were  once  good 
angels  who  lived  up  in  heaven.  But  they  dis- 
pleased God  and  he  sent  them  out  of  heaven. 
And  now  they  are  bad  angels,  or  spirits.  They 
hate  everything  that  is  good  and  try  to  work 
against  it.  Satan  is  their  king  and  they  do  as 
he  tells  them. 

At  the  time  I  am  telling  you  about,  when 
Jesus  was  on  earth,  these  evil  spirits  used  to  go 
into  persons;  into  men,  and  women,  and  even 
into   little    children.      And  the  persons  they 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  47 

went  into,  had  to  do  whatever  the  evil  spirits 
made  them  do. 

And  now  one  of  these  spirits  had  gone  into 
a  man  that  was  in  the  synagogue.  And  the 
man  could  not  make  him  go  out,  for  spirits 
will  not  obey  men. 

But  when  the  spirit  saw  Jesus,  he  cried  out 
that  he  knew  Jesus  was  the  Son  of  God.  And 
Jesus  spoke  to  him,  and  said,  Be  still,  and  come 
out  of  him.  Then  the  evil  spirit  cried  out  with 
a  loud  voice,  and  made  the  man  fall  down  on 
the  ground,  but  afterwards  he  came  out  of 
him. 

And  the  people  who  were  in  the  synagogue 
were  astonished.  They  said  to  each  other, 
What  does  this  mean,  that  even  the  wicked 
spirits  obey  him?  And  all  the  people  who 
lived  in  that  part  of  the  land  of  Israel  heard 
about  this  miracle  that  Jesus  had  done. 

And  Jesus  came  out  of  the  synagogue  and 
went  into  the  house  where  his  two  disciples, 
Peter  and  Andrew,  lived.  And  Peter's  wife's 
mother  was  sick  with  a  great  fever.  And  they 
begged  Jesus  to  make  her  well. 

Then  he  stood  by  the  bed  and  took  her  by 
the  hand,  and  lifted  her  up,  and  at  once  the 
fever  left  her  and  she  was  well,  so  that  she  rose 


48  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

up  and  waited  on  the  persons  who  were  in  the 
house. 

And  in  the  evening,  when  the  sun  had  gone 
down,  the  people  in  the  city  brought  many 
persons  who  were  sick,  and  who  had  evil  spirits 
in  them.  And  Jesus  made  every  sick  person 
well,  and  he  made  the  evil  spirits  go  out  of  all 
those  who  had  them. 

The  next  morning  he  rose  up  very  early, 
before  it  was  light,  and  went  out,  by  himself,  to 
a  lonely  place  in  the  wilderness,  and  there  he 
kneeled  down  on  the  ground  and  prayed  to  God. 

For,  although  he  was  God's  Son,  and  had 
lived  up  in  heaven,  yet  now  he  had  come  down 
on  the  earth  to  be  a  man,  like  us.  And  while 
he  lived  on  the  earth,  as  a  man,  he  had  many 
things  to  give  him  trouble  and  pain,  as  men 
have;  and  therefore  he  prayed  to  God  for 
help,  as  men  do. 

But  after  he  had  gone  out  into  the  wilder- 
ness, the  people  who  lived  in  Capernaum  came 
to  Peter's  house  to  find  him ;  and  hearing  he 
was  not  there,  they  went  to  look  for  him.  And 
they  came  to  him  and  begged  him  not  to  go 
away  from  their  city.  But  Jesus  told  them  he 
must  go  and  preach  to  the  people  who  lived  in 
other  cities  also. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  49 

After  this  he  went  through  all  the  cities  in 
that  country,  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  people 
who  lived  there.  Gospel  means  good  news. 
The  good  news  that  Jesus  preached  was,  that 
he  had  come  clown  from  heaven  to  save  us  from 
being  punished  for  our  sins.  For  we  have  all 
disobeyed  God,  and  sinned ;  we  have  done  so 
many  times.  And  God  says  that  those  persons 
who  disobey  him  shall  be  punished. 

How  then  could  Jesus  save  us  from  being 
punished,  when  we  had  disobeyed  God  and 
deserved  to  be  punished?  There  was  only  one 
way,  and  that  was  to  be  punished  in  our  place. 
We  shall  read  afterward  how  he  took  this  way, 
and  was  punished  in  our  place.  And  yet  this 
will  do  us  no  good,  unless  we  repent  of  our 
sins,  and  take  him  for  our  Saviour. 

And  there  came  to  Jesus  a  man  who  had 
the  leprosy.  The  leprosy  was  a  disease,  or 
sickness,  which -caused  sores  to  come  on  a  per- 
son's skin,  and,  at  the  same  time,  made  his  skin 
look  white,  like  snow.  Sometimes  it  came  on 
one  part  of  a  person's  body  only,  and  some- 
times it  came  not  only  on  a  part,  but  over  his 
whole  body,  from  his  head  to  his  feet. 

It  was  a  very  dreadful  disease.  As  soon  as 
any  man  among  the  Jews  got  it,  he  had  to 


50  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

leave  his  home  and  his  family,  and  go  to  some 
place  where  he  would  be  alone,  or  else  with 
other  persons,  only,  who  had  the  leprosy  like 
himself.  And  he  could  not  come  back  to  his 
home  until  he  was  well.  But  no  one,  except 
God,  could  make  him  well. 

Sometimes  God  sent  the  leprosy  upon  wicked 
men  to  punish  them  for  their  sins.  He  sent 
it  once  upon  a  king,  that  we  read  about  in  the 
Bible,  whose  name  was  Uzziah.  God  sent  it 
upon  him  for  disobeying  his  command.  And 
Uzziah  was  never  cured,  but  was  a  leper  for 
twenty-eight  years,  until  he  died.  And  all 
that  time  he  lived  in  a  separate  house,  away 
from  other  persons,  and  his  son  had  to  rule 
over  the  people  for  him. 

And  now  a  man  who  had  this  dreadful  dis- 
ease, came  to  Jesus,  and  kneeled  down  on  the 
ground  before  him,  and  said,  Lord,  if  thou  art 
willing  to  do  it,  thou  canst  make  me  clean ;  that 
meant,  well.  And  Jesus  pitied  the  man,  and 
put  out  his  hand  and  touched  him,  and  said, 
I  will  do  it:  be  clean.  And  as  soon  as  Jesus 
had  sj^oken  these  words,  the  leprosy  went  from 
the  man  and  he  was  well. 

And  Jesus  commanded  him  not  to  tell  any 
one  who  had  cured  him.     But  the  man  was  so 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  51 

full  of  joy  at  being  made  well,  that  he  went 
out  and  told  all  the  people.  Then  such  great 
numbers  of  persons  came  to  Jesus,  and  crowded 
around  him,  that  he  could  not  stay  in  that  place. 
And  he  went  away  into  the  wilderness  where  he 
would  be  alone,  and  there  he  prayed  to  God. 

And  he  came  again  to  the  city  of  Capernaum. 
This  city,  as  we  have  read,  was  built  on  the 
sea-shore,  near  to  the  water.  The  houses  in 
Capernaum  were  not  like  ours,  three,  or  four, 
stories  high  ;  most  of  them  were  only  one  story 
high.  And  their  roofs  were  flat,  so  that  persons 
could  go  up,  of  a  pleasant  summer  evening,  and 
walk  there.  Around  the  edge  of  the  roofs  a 
low  railing,  or  wall,  was  built,  to  keep  persons 
from  falling  off. 

But  there  was  one  room  in  these  houses  that 
had  no  roof  over  it  at  all.  It  was  in  the 
middle  of  the  house,  and  was  called  the  court. 
Any  person  who  was  in  that  room,  could  look 
up,  and  see  the  sky  above  him,  just  as  if  he 
were  not  in  the  house  at  all. 

Yet,  when  it  rained,  or  was  very  hot,  they 
spread  an  awning,  or  covering  of  some  kind, 
over  this  room  to  keep  out  the  sun,  or  the  rain. 
Jesus  had  gone  into  a  house  that  had  a  room 
like  this. 


52  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  many  of  the  people  of  the  city  came 
there  to  hear  him.  So  many  came  that  they 
could  not  all  of  them  get  in ;  but  some  had  to 
stand  outside,  around  the  door.  And  some 
men  brought  a  sick  man  who  had  the  palsy. 

The  palsy  is  a  disease  which  makes  persons 
weak,  and  unable  to  walk.  And  this  man  could 
not  walk;  therefore,  his  friends  brought  him 
lying  on  his  bed,  or  mattress.  They  brought 
him  to  Jesus  because  they  had  heard  that  Jesus 
could  do  miracles,  and  cure  persons  whom  no 
doctor  could  cure. 

But  when  they  brought  the  sick  man  to  the 
house  where  Jesus  was,  they  could  not  come  in, 
because  of  the  crowd.  Then  they  got  up  on  to 
the  roof  in  some  way ;  perhaps  they  went  into 
the  next  house  and  got  up  through  that.  And 
they  carried  the  sick  man  up  with  them. 

And  when  they  had  taken  off  the  covering, 
or  roof,  they  let  him  down,  on  his  bed,  into  the 
room  below  where  Jesus  was.  When  Jesus 
saw  their  faith  he  was  pleased.  Faith  means 
belief.  This  sick  man  and  his  friends  believed 
that  Jesus  could  make  him  well.  They  showed 
their  belief,  or  faith,  by  taking  so  much  trouble 
to  come  to  Jesus. 

And  when  Jesus  saw  how  much  faith  they 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  53 

had,  he  determined  to  do  something  for  the 
sick  man  that  was  better,  even,  than  to  make 
him  well  of  his  palsy.  Jesus  determined  to 
forgive  his  sins,  so  that  God  would  not  be 
angry  with  him,  or  punish  him  for  them. 

Men  cannot  forgive  sins,  only  God  can  do 
that.  But  Jesus  can  do  it,  because  he  is  the 
Son  of  God  and  has  power  to  do  the  things 
that  God  can  do.  And  now  Jesus  spoke  to  the 
sick  man  and  told  him,  that  all  his  sins  were 
forgiven. 

Now,  there  were  among  the  people  in  the 
house,  some  men  who  were  called  Scribes,  and 
others  called  Pharisees.  These  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  were  hypocrites,  that  is,  persons  who 
pretended  to  be  good,  while  in  their  hearts 
they  were  wicked. 

And  when  they  heard  Jesus  tell  the  sick 
man  that  his  sins  were  forgiven,  they  were 
displeased,  and  they  said  to  themselves,  Who 
is  this  that  pretends  he  is  able  to  forgive  sins, 
as  if  he  were  God  ? 

But  Jesus  knew  their  thoughts,  and  he  said 
to  them,  Why  do  you  think  these  things  in 
your  hearts?  To  show  you  that  I  have  power 
to  forgive  this  man  his  sins,  I  will  now  make 
him  well  of  his  palsy.     Then  he  said  to  the 


54  THE   STORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

sick  man,  Stand  up  on  thy  feet,  and  take  up 
thy  bed,  and  go  to  thy  home.  And,  just  by 
speaking  those  words,  Jesus  made  the  man  well. 
And  at  once  he  arose  from  his  bed,  or  mat- 
tress, and  took  it  up  and  carried  it  out  of  the 
house,  so  that  all  the  people  could  see  him. 
Then  the  people  were  very  much  astonished, 
and  they  said,  We  never  saw  such  things  done 
before. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  55 


CHAPTER  IV. 

JESUS  CALLS  MATTHEW  TO  BE  HIS  DISCIPLE.  HE  CURES  THE 
SICK  MAN  AT  THE  POOL  OF  BETHESDA,  AND  THE  MAN 
WITH  A  WITHERED  HAND.  HE  CHOOSES  THE  TWELVE 
APOSTLES,  AND  PREACHES  THE  SERMON  ON  THE  MOUNT. 


WE  have  read  that  the  land  where  the  Jews 
lived  was  called  the  land  of  Israel.  God 
had  given  them  this  land  for  their  own.  And 
many  hundreds  of  years  before  the  time  we 
are  now  reading  about,  they  used  to  have  kings 
of  their  own  nation  to  rule  over  them. 

But,  because  they  disobeyed  God,  he  had  sent 
the  kings  of  other  nations  against  them.  These 
kings  came  with  soldiers  and  fought  with  them 
and  gained  the  victory  over  them,  and  made 
the  Jews  their  servants.  Then  the  Jews  had 
to  obey  the  kings  of  those  other  nations,  and 
they  had  kings  of  their  own  no  longer. 

At  the  time  we  are  now  reading  about,  while 
Jesus  was  on  earth,  the  Jews  were  servants  to 
a  nation  called  the  Romans,  and  they  had  to 


56  THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

obey  whatever  the  emperor  of  Rome  com- 
manded. And  he  commanded  them  to  pay 
him  money.  Every  man  among  the  Jews  had 
to  pay  a  part  of  the  money  that  he  earned 
to  the  emperor  of  Rome. 

Now  the  emperor  did  not  live  in  the  land 
of  Israel,  and  he  did  not  come  himself  to  get 
the  money  which  the  Jews  paid  him;  but  he 
had  men  there  who  took  this  money  for  him. 
These  men  were  called  Publicans,  and  the 
money  which  they  took  for  the  emperor  was 
called  taxes,  or  tribute  money. 

And  as  Jesus  was  passing  by,  he  saw  a 
Publican,  named  Matthew,  sitting  at  the  place 
where  the  people  came  to  pay  him  the  tribute 
money.  And  Jesus  spoke  to  Matthew  and  told 
him  to  come  with  him.  Then  Matthew  rose 
up,  and  left  everything,  and  went  with  Jesus. 

He  might  have  had  more  money  by  staying 
where  he  was.  Perhaps  he  might  have  grown 
rich;  for  sometimes  the  Publicans  came  to  be 
rich  men.  But  he  chose  rather  to  go  with 
Jesus,  even  though  he  might  be  poor.  And 
from  that  time  he  stayed  with  him,  and  was 
one  of  his  disciples 

And  Jesus  went  up  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem. 
In   that   country  the   cities   had   great  walls 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  57 

around  them,  which  the  people  built  to  keep 
out  their  enemies  when  they  came  with  soldiers 
to  fight  against  them.  There  was  such  a  wall 
around  Jerusalem. 

In  this  wall  were  large  gates  for  the  people 
to  pass  through.  One  of  these  gates  was  called 
the  sheep  gate,  because  sheep  were  driven 
through  it  into  the  city.  Near  the  sheep  gate 
was  a  pool,  or  little  pond,  of  water,  called  the 
pool  of  Bethesda,  and  around  this  pool  were 
built  five  lurches. 

In  these  porches  a  great  number  of  people 
were  gathered  together  who  were  sick,  or  blind, 
or  lame.  They  were  waiting  here  because, 
sometimes,  an  angel  came  down  and  stirred  up, 
or  troubled,  the  water.  Then  whoever  went  into 
it  first,  after  the  angel  had  troubled  it,  was  made 
well  of  whatever  disease,  or  sickness,  he  had. 

And  Jesus  came  to  the  pool  of  Bethesda,  and 
walked  among  the  poor,  sick  people,  who  were 
waiting  in  the  porches.  And  a  man  was  there 
who  had  been  sick  for  thirty-eight  years.  He 
was  too  weak  to  walk,  or  even  to  stand,  and- he 
was  lying  upon  his  bed. 

Now  Jesus  knew  how  long  he  had  been  sick 
and  he  pitied  him,  and  said  to  him,  Dost  thou 
want  to  be  made  well  ?     Then  the  sick  man, 


58  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

because  he  thought  he  must  get  into  the  water 
to  be  made  well,  answered  Jesus,  and  said,  I 
have  no  one,  after  the  angel  has  troubled  the 
water,  to  help  me  into  the  pool.  But  while  I 
am  trying  to  get  down  to  it,  another  person 
steps  in  before  me  and  I  am  too  late. 

Then  Jesus  said  to  him,  Rise,  and  take  up 
thy  bed,  and  walk.  And  at  once  the  man  was 
made  strong  and  well,  and  he  rose  and  took 
up  his  bed  and  walked. 

Now  it  was  the  Sabbath  day  when  Jesus  did 
this.  And  when  the  Jews  saw  the  man  carry- 
ing his  bed,  they  said  to  him,  It  is  wrong  for 
thee  to  carry  thy  bed  on  the  Sabbath  day. 
They  said  this  because  God  had  commanded 
them  not  to  work  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

But  this  man  was  not  working  on  the  Sab- 
bath. Yet  they  said  he  was  doing  wrong. 
Then  he  answered  them,  saying,  He  that  cured 
me  told  me  to  take  up  my  bed  and  walk.  They 
said,  Who  is  it  that  told  thee  this  ?  The  man 
said  it  was  Jesus. 

Then  the  Jews  said  that  Jesus  ought  not  to 
have  cured  the  man  on  the  Sabbath  day.  They 
pretended  he  had  worked  and  disobeyed  God's 
commandment,  by  doing  so.  And  they  were 
angry  at  him  and  wanted  to  kill  him. 


THE   STORY   OF    THE    GOSPEL.  59 

But  Jesus  talked  with  them,  and  told  them, 
that  the  miracles  which  he  did  showed  that 
God  had  sent  him,  and  yet,  he  said,  the  Jews 
would  not  believe  on  him.  But  he  told  them 
that  he  was  God's  Son,  and  that  he  had  power 
not  only  to  make  sick  people  well,  but  dead 
people  alive  again. 

And  the  time  was  coming,  he  said,  when  all 
those  persons  who  were  dead,  would  hear  him 
call  to  them,  and  would  rise  up  out  of  their 
graves.  Then  those  who  had  done  right  would 
be  rewarded,  but  those  who  had  done  wickedly 
would  be  sent  away  to  be  punished. 

And  Jesus  and  his  disciples  walked,  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  through  the  fields  where  the  grain 
was  growing.  As  they  walked  the  disciples 
picked  some  of  the  grain  and  rubbed  it  in  their 
hands,  to  separate  it  from  the  straw  on  which 
it  grew.  They  did  this  so  that  they  might  eat 
the  grain,  because  they  were  hungry. 

Then  some  of  the  Pharisees  who  saw  them, 
found  fault,  as  the  Jews  had  done  when  Jesus 
cured  the  sick  man  at  the  pool  of  Bethesda. 
The  Pharisees  said  that  the  disciples  were  doing 
work  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

But  Jesus  told  them  that  he  was  the  Lord, 
or  Master,  of  the  Sabbath  day.     He  meant 


60  THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

that  tliey  were  not  to  judge,  or  blame,  him,  for 
what  he  did,  or  what  he  allowed  his  disciples 
to  do,  on  that  day.  For  whatever  he  did  on 
that  day,  it  was  right  to  do. 

On  another  Sabbath,  Jesus  went  into  the 
synagogue,  where  the  people  had  gathered 
together  to  hear  the  Scriptures  read,  and  to 
pray.  And  a  man  was  there  whose  right  hand 
was  withered,  or  shrunk  up,  so  that  he  could 
not  open  it,  or  stretch  it  out. 

And  some  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  who 
were  in  the  synagogue,  watched  Jesus  to  see 
whether  he  would  make  the  man  well  on  the 
Sabbath ;  for  they  wanted  to  find  fault  with  him 
as  they  had  done  before.  But  Jesus  knew 
their  thoughts,  and  he  told  the  man  who  had 
the  withered  hand  to  stand  out,  where  the  rest 
of  the  people  could  see  him. 

Then  Jesus  said  to  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
If  one  of  you  had  a  sheep  that  should  fall  into 
a  pit  on  the  Sabbath  day,  would  you  not  take 
hold  of  it  and  lift  it  out?  And  if  it  be  right 
to  do  good  to  a  sheep,  how  much  more  is  it  to 
do  good  to  a  man.  Therefore  I  tell  you  it  is 
right  to  do  good  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

Then  he  said  to  the  man  whose  hand  was 
withered,  Stretch  out  thy  hand.    And  the  man 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  61 

stretched  it  out  and  immediately  it  was  made 
well  like  the  other.  Then  the  Pharisees  were 
filled  with  anger  against  Jesus,  and  they  went 
out  of  the  synagogue  and  talked  with  one 
another  about  some  way  of  putting  him  to 
death. 

When  Jesus  knew  of  it,  he  went  away  from 
that  place  with  his  disciples;  and  they  came  to 
the  sea  of  Galilee.  And  many  people,  who 
lived  in  cities  far  away,  followed  him.  And 
those  that  were  sick,  or  lame,  or  had  evil  spirits 
in  them,  crowded  around  him  to  touch  him, 
so  that,  just  by  his  touch,  they  might  be  made 
well.     And  Jesus  cured  them  all. 

After  this  he  went  out  to  a  desert  place,  that 
is,  to  a  place  that  was  lonely  and  wild,  and  he 
stayed  there  all  night  praying  to  God. 

When  it  was  morning  he  called  his  disciples 
to  him,  and  he  chose  twelve  of  them  whom  he 
named  apostles.  Apostles  means  messengers. 
Jesus  called  these  twelve  disciples  apostles, 
because  he  intended  to  send  them  out  as  mes- 
sengers among  the  people,  to  teach  them. 

The  names  of  the  twelve  apostles  were  these : 
Peter  and  Andrew,  his  brother,  James  and 
John,  Philip  and  Bartholomew,  Matthew  and 
Thomas,  James,  the  son  of  Alpheus,  Simon 


62  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

and  Judas,  the  brother  of  James,  and  Judas 
Iscariot. 

And  Jesus  went  up  on  to  a  mountain,  and 
when  he  was  set  down,  he  taught  the  people 
who  came  to  him  there.  He  told  them  what 
persons  were  truly  happy ;  he  called  those  per- 
sons the  blessed  ones,     He  said, 

Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit. 

A  person  is  poor  in  spirit  when  he  is  humble 
on  account  of  his  sins.  Instead  of  being  proud 
and  thinking  himself  very  good,  he  remembers 
the  wicked  things  he  has  done,  and  he  repents 
of  them  and  asks  God  to  forgive  them.  And 
Jesus  said, 

Blessed  are  those  who  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness. 

To  hunger  and  thirst  is  to  want  food  to  eat, 
and  water  to  drink.  And  Jesus  says  we  ought 
to  want  to  do  right  and  to  please  God,  as  much 
as  we  want  food  when  we  are  hungry  and  water 
when  we  are  thirsty.  And  if  we  want  to  do 
right  as  much  as  this,  God  will  help  us  to  do 
it.     And  he  said, 

Blessed  are  those  who  are  merciful  to  others, 
for  they  shall  have  mercy  shown  to  them. 

To  be  merciful  is  to  be  kind.  God  tells  us 
to  be.  kind  to  other  persons.     And  if  we  obey 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  63 

him,  he  will  make  other  persons  kind  to  us. 
And  he  himself  will  be  kind  to  us.  And 
Jesus  said, 

Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart. 

A  pure  heart  is  a  clean  and  good  heart.  I 
have  told  you  we  are  all  born  with  wicked 
hearts  that  make  us  want  to  do  wrong.  But 
when  our  hearts  are  changed  and  made  good, 
and  pure,  we  want  to  do  right  and  to  please 
God.  And  then,  Jesus  says,  we  are  blessed, 
or  happy.     And  he  said, 

Blessed  are  the  peacemakers. 

A  peacemaker  is  a  person  who  will  not 
quarrel  himself,  and  who  does  all  he  can  to 
keep  others  from  quarreling.  Or,  when  they 
have  quarreled  already,  he  tries  to  make  them 
friends  again. 

And  Jesus  told  his  disciples  that  when  other 
persons  were  unkind,  or  cruel,  to  them,  they 
must  not  be  unkind  to  those  persons  again. 
Instead  of  this,  they  must  do  good  to  them, 
and  pray  for  them;  then,  he  said,  they  would 
be  like  their  Father  in  heaven ;  for  he  is  kind 
even  to  those  who  do  not  obey  him,  or  love 
him. 

And  Jesus  told  the  people  who  were  listening 
to  him,  and  he  tells  you  and  me,  that  whatever 


G4  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

we  want  other  persons  to  do  to  us,  we  must  do 
to  them.  If  we  want  them  to  treat  us  kindly 
and  justly,  we  must  treat  them  kindly  and 
justly,  too. 

And  he  said  to  his  disciples  that  when  they 
did  what  was  right,  they  must  be  very  careful 
not  to  do  it  only  for  others  to  see  them  and 
praise  them.  For  that  was  not  the  reason 
why  they  should  do  right.  They  should  do 
it  to  please  God. 

When  they  gave  any  of  their  money  to  a 
person  who  was  poor,  they  were  not  to  go  around 
telling  others  about  it,  and  boasting  about  it. 
When  they  said  their  prayers  they  must  not 
do  like  the  Pharisees,  whom  we  have  read  about, 
and  who  were  hypocrites. 

For  they  used  to  say  their  prayers  out  in  the 
streets,  on  purpose  that  others  might  hear  them, 
and  think  them  very  holy.  But  the  disciples 
of  Jesus  must  choose  a  place  where  no  one  but 
God  could  hear  them.  Then  Jesus  said,  God 
would  answer  their  prayers. 

And  he  said  to  the  people,  Try  to  go  in  at 
the  narrow  gate,  for  wide  is  the  gate  and  broad 
is  the  way  that  leads  to  destruction. 

By  the  narrow  gate  Jesus  meant  the  good 
way  that  leads  up  to  heaven.     By  the  broad 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  65 

gate  lie  meant  the  bad  way  that  leads  down  to 
hell,  iind  he  told  the  people  that  a  great 
many  persons  went  in  at  the  broad  gate ;  but  not 
nearly  so  many  took  pains  to  find  the  narrow 
gate,  that  is,  to  obey  God  and  do  right,  so  that 
they  might  be  taken  to  heaven  after  they  die. 

Then  Jesus  told  his  disciples  about  two  men 
who  each  of  them  built  a  house.  One  chose  a 
strong  rock  to  build  his  on.  When  it  was  done 
there  came  a  great  storm  and  beat  against  the 
house.  But  the  rain  could  not  move  the  rock 
that  it  stood  on,  nor  the  wind  blow  it  away. 
Therefore  the  house  stood  firm  and  the  storm 
did  it  no  harm. 

The  other  man  built  his  house  in  a  place 
where  there  was  nothing  but  sand  to  build  it 
on.  And  the  storm  came  against  this  house, 
too.  And  the  rain  washed  the  sand  away  from 
underneath  it,  and  the  wind  blew  against  it, 
and  the  house  fell  and  was  broken  to  pieces. 

Then  Jesus  said  that  all  those  persons  who 
obeyed  what  he  told  them,  were  like  the  wise 
man  who  built  his  house  on  the  rock.  But 
those  who  disobeyed  him  were  like  the  foolish 
man  who  built  his  house  on  the  sand.  For 
these  two  men  meant  the  righteous  and  the 
wicked — that  is,  the  good  people  and  the  bad 


66  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

]3eople;  and  the  storm  meant  the  Judgment 
Day. 

Jesus  came  again  to  the  city  of  Capernaum. 
And  a  man  lived  there  who  was  a  captain  in 
the  Roman  army.  He  was  captain  over  a 
hundred  soldiers,  and  was  called  a  Centurion, 
for  captains  in  the  Roman  army  were  called  by 
that  name.  And  this  Centurion  had  a  servant 
whom  he  loved,  but  the  servant  was  sick  and 
going  to  die. 

Now  the  Centurion  had  been  told  how  Jesus 
could  make  sick  people  well  by  only  speaking 
to  them,  and  telling  them  to  be  well.  And 
when  he  heard  that  Jesus  was  in  the  city,  he 
sent  some  of  the  elders,  or  chief  men  among 
the  Jews,  who  were  his  friends,  to  ask  Jesus  if 
he  would  not  come  and  heal  his  servant,  that 
is,  make  him  well. 

And  the  men  came  and  begged  Jesus  to  do 
it.  They  told  him  that  although  the  Centurion 
was  not  a  Jew,  but  a  Roman,  yet  he  was  a 
good  man  and  very  kind  to  the  Jews,  for  with 
his  own  money  he  had  built  them  a  synagogue. 

Then  Jesus  went  with  the  men  toward  the 
Centurion's  house.  But  when  he  came  near  it, 
the  Centurion  sent  some  more  of  his  friends 
with  a  message  to  Jesus. 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  67 

The  message  was  this:  that  the  Centurion 
had  not  come  to  speak  with  Jesus,  at  first, 
because  he  thought  he  was  not  good  enough. 
And  now  he  sent  word  that  he  did  not  think 
himself  good  enough  even  for  Jesus  to  come 
into  his  house.  But  if  Jesus  would  only 
say  that  his  servant  should  get  well,  without 
coming,  the  Centurion  was  sure  he  would  get 
well. 

For  the  Centurion  said  that  he  had  soldiers 
under  him  who  obeyed  what  he  said  to  them. 
If  he  told  one  of  them  to  go  to  any  place,  he 
would  go.  And  if  he  told  another  to  come  to 
him,  he  would  come.  And  just  as  the  soldiers 
obeyed  him,  he  was  sure  the  disease  would  obey 
Jesus,  and  go  out  of  his  servant,  if  Jesus  would 
command  it  to. 

When  Jesus  heard  the  Centurion's  message, 
he  was  astonished,  and  he  said,  that  he  had 
not  found  any  one  else  who  trusted  in  him  so 
much  as  this  Centurion  did.  And  because  he 
trusted  in  him,  Jesus  said,  his  servant  should 
get  well.  And  when  the  Centurion's  friends 
went  back  to  his  house,  they  found  the  servant 
was  well. 

The  next  day  Jesus  went  into  a  city  called 
Nain.    As  he  came  near  to  the  gate  of  the  city, 


68  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

he  met  some  people  who  were  carrying  out  a 
dead  man  laid  upon  a  bier.  A  bier  is  what 
dead  persons  are  carried  on  to  the  grave. 

And  this  man  was  being  carried  to  his  grave, 
to  be  buried.  He  was  the  only  son  that  his 
mother  had,  and  she  was  a  widow,  for  her  hus- 
band was  dead.  And  now  she  was  following 
after  the  bier,  weeping,  and  many  people  of 
the  city  were  with  her. 

When  Jesus  saw  her  weeping  he  pitied  her, 
and  told  her  not  to  weep.  Then  he  came  to 
the  bier  on  which  her  son  lay  and  touched  it; 
and  the  men  who  were  carrying  it  stood  still. 
And  Jesus  said,  Young  man,  I  say  unto  thee, 
Arise.  Then  he  that  was  dead  came  to  life 
again,  and  sat  up,  and  began  to  speak.  And 
Jesus  gave  him  to  his  mother. 

And  when  the  people  saw  the  dead  man 
come  to  life  again,  they  were  afraid.  And  they 
said  that  Jesus  was  a  great  prophet,  and  that 
it  was  God  who  had  sent  him  to  them. 

After  this  Jesus  went  through  the  villages 
and  cities  preaching  to  the  people  who  lived 
there.  And  the  twelve  apostles  were  with  him. 
And  he  was  poor;  for  though  he  might  have 
been  rich  (for  everything  in  the  world  was  his) , 
yet  he  chose  to  be  poor,  and  to  suffer  punish- 


THE   STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


69 


ment,  and  trouble,  so  that  he  might  save  us 
from  being  punished. 

And  some  of  the  women  that  he  had  cured 
of  sickness,  and  of  evil  spirits,  gave  to  him  such 
things  as  he  needed.  One  of  these  women  was 
named  Mary  Magdalene,  and  another  Joanna, 
and  beside  these  there  were  many  others  that 
helped  him. 


70  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


CHAPTER  V. 

JESUS  SPEAKS  PARABLES  TO  THE  PEOPLE.  HE  STILLS  THE 
STORM  ON  THE  SEA.  HE  CURES  THE  SICK  J  RAISES  THE 
DEAD  TO  LIFE,  AND  GIVES  SIGHT  TO  THE  BLIND. 


AND  while  great  numbers  of  the  people 
-  were  around  him,  listening  to  what  he 
said,  Jesus  spoke  a  parable  to  them.  A  parable 
is  a  story  which  has  a  meaning  to  it,  and  which 
helps  us  to  understand  and  remember  something 
we  are  learning. 

Jesus  told  the  people  this  parable  to  make 
them  understand  how  foolish  and  wicked  it  was 
in  any  person  to  think  that  if  he  were  only 
rich,  then  he  would  be  happy,  whether  he 
obeyed  God  or  not. 

The  parable  was  about  a  rich  man  who  had 
fields  with  grain  and  fruit  growing  in  them. 
When  the  time  came  for  these  to  be  ripe,  his 
servants  went  out  and  gathered  them.  But  so 
much  had  grown  in  the  rich  man's  fields  that 
his   barns  would   not   hold   all    his    servants 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  71 

gathered.  Then  he  said  to  himself,  What  shall 
I  do?  For  I  have  no  room  to  put  away  my 
grain  and  my  fruits. 

And  he  answered,  This  is  what  I  will  do.  I 
wTill  pull  down  the  barns  that  I  have  now,  and 
build  larger  ones.  And  there  I  will  put  away 
all  my  grain,  and  my  fruits.  Then  I  will  say 
to  myself,  Now  I  can  do  as  I  choose,  and  enjoy 
myself,  for  I  am  rich,  and  have  enough  fruits 
laid  up  to  last  me  for  many  years. 

But  as  soon  as  the  rich  man  had  spoken 
these  words,  God  said  to  him,  Thou  foolish 
man,  this  night  thou  must  die.  Then  who 
shall  have  all  those  riches  that  are  laid  up  to 
last  thee  for  many  years? 

And  this  is  the  way,  Jesus  said,  it  would  be 
with  all  those  persons  who  care  for  nothing 
else  but  to  be  rich  in  this  world,  and  do  not 
care  to  please  God. 

Like  the  man  in  the  parable,  they  will  die 
when  they  are  not  expecting  to,  and  then  they 
will  have  to  leave  their  riches  for  other  per- 
sons, and  go  away  themselves  to  a  world  where 
no  riches  have  been  laid  up  for  them. 

Then  Jesus  told  his  disciples  not  to  be  anx- 
ious because  they  were  poor,  for  fear  they 
would  have  no  food  to  eat,  or  clothes  to  wear. 


72  THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

Think  of  the  birds,  he  said,  they  do  not 
plant  grain  out  in  the  field,  and,  when  it  grows 
ripe,  cut  it  down  and  carry  it  to  the  barn,  to 
save  it  up  there.  Yet  the  birds  always  have 
enough  to  eat,  because  God  feeds  them. 

And  look  at  the  flowers,  how  they  grow. 
They  do  not  work  and  make  clothes  for  them- 
selves like  men.  Yet  they  have  brighter  colors 
on  them,  and  more  beautiful  dresses,  than  even 
kings  wear. 

And  if  God  gives  such  beautiful  dresses  to 
the  flowers,  that  are  worth  so  little,  surely, 
Jesus  said,  he  would  give  clothes  to  his  disciples, 
though  now  they  were  afraid  to  trust  in  him. 

Therefore  Jesus  told  them  not  to  be  afraid 
that  they  would  want  food  to  eat  and  clothes 
to  wear;  for  their  heavenly  Father  knew  that 
they  wanted  these  things.  But  they  should  be 
careful,  he  said,  to  obey  God  and  to  be  his 
children,  and  then  God  would  give  them  every- 
thing they  needed. 

And  as  Jesus  was  walking  on  the  shore  of 
the  sea  of  Galilee,  a  great  multitude  of  iDeoj^le 
came  to  hear  him,  so  that  he  went  into  a  boat, 
as  we  read  he  did  before,  and  sat  down  and 
taught  the  people  out  of  the  boat,  while  they 
stood  listening  to  him  on  the  shore. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  73 

And  he  spoke  a  parable  to  them  about  a 
farmer  who  went  out  into  the  field  to  sow  his 
seed.  This  farmer  carried  the  seed  in  a  great 
pocket,  or  bag;  and  the  way  he  sowed  it  was 
to  take  out  handfuls  of  it,  and  scatter  it  before 
him  over  the  ground.  He  did  this  so  that  the 
seed  might  take  root,  and  grow  up,  and  bear 
grain  for  him. 

And  some  of  the  seed  that  he  scattered  in 
this  way,  fell  on  the  pathway  where  the  people 
walked  when  they  came  in  and  out  of  the  field. 
And  because  the  ground  was  hard  there,  the 
seed  did  not  sink  down  into  it,  where  it  could 
take  root  and  grow,  but  it  lay  on  the  top  of  the 
ground.  And  presently  the  birds  saw  it,  and 
flew  down  and  ate  it. 

And  some  more  of  the  seed  that  the  farmer 
scattered,  fell  on  stony  ground  where  there  was 
only  a  little  earth.  Then  it  quickly  took  root 
and  began  to  grow  up,  but  because  there  was 
not  room  for  it  to  make  larger  roots,  it  soon 
withered  away  and  died. 

And  some  of  the  seed  fell  in  a  place  where 
weeds  and  briars  were  growing;  and  the  weeds 
and  briars  grew  faster  than  the  seed  did,  and 
they  choked  it,  and  killed  it. 

But  the  rest  of  the  seed  fell  on  good  ground, 


74  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

that  the  farmer  had  ploughed  and  made  all 
ready  for  it.  And  the  rain  fell  on  it  and 
watered  it  there,  and  the  sun  shone  on  it,  and 
the  seed  grew  up  and  bore  grain,  a  great  deal 
more  than  the  farmer  had  planted. 

When  Jesus  was  alone  his  discij)les  asked 
him  to  explain  to  them  what  this  parable 
meant.  Then  he  told  them  that  the  seeds 
meant  the  words  that  he  preached  to  the 
people. 

When  the  people  heard  him,  some  of  them 
did  not  listen  to  his  words,  or  obey  what  he 
said  to  them.  These  people  were  like  the 
ground  where  the  seed  would  not  grow.  They 
were  like  the  hard  ground  on  the  pathway, 
and  like  the  stony  ground,  and  the  ground 
that  had  briars  and  weeds  in  it. 

But  some  of  the  people  attended  to  his 
words,  and  obeyed  what  he  told  them.  These 
were  like  the  good  ground,  where  the  seed  took 
root  and  grew.  The  words  that  Jesus  spoke 
meant  the  seeds,  and  the  ground  meant  the 
peo}:>le's  hearts. 

And  the  ground  means  your  hearts  too. 
When  you  are  being  taught  the  things  that 
Jesus  said,  then  his  words  are  being  sown  in 
your  hearts.     If  you  do  not  listen  to  them 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  75 

and  mind  them,  you  are  like  the  bad  and 
stony  ground.  But  if  you  obey  them,  you 
are  like  the  good  ground,  where  the  seed  took 
root,  and  bore  plenty  of  grain. 

And  Jesus  spoke  another  parable,  about  a 
man  who  sowed  wheat  in  his  field.  But  after 
it  was  sown  and  the  work  was  all  done,  his 
servants,  instead  of  keeping  watch,  lay  down 
and  slept.  And,  while  they  were  sleeping,  an 
enemy  came  into  the  field  and  sowed  tares,  or 
weeds,  among  the  wheat.  He  did  this  so  softly 
that  the  servants  did  not  hear  him.  Then  he 
went  away  and  they  knew  nothing  of  it. 

And  after  a  good  many  days,  when  the  wheat 
had  grown  up,  the  servants  went  out  and  looked 
at  it.  And  there  they  saw  tares  growing  among 
the  wheat.  Then  they  were  surprised,  and  they 
came  back  to  the  owner  of  the  field,  and  said  to 
him,  Sir,  was  it  not  good  seed  that  was  sowed 
in  thy  field? 

He  answered,  Yes.  And  they  asked  him  how 
it  was  that  tares  were  growing  among  the  wheat. 
Then  the  owner  of  the  field  knew  who  had 
done  it,  and  he  told  his  servants  that  an  enemy 
had  been  there  and  sowed  the  tares. 

Then  the  servants  asked  him  whether  they 
should  not  go  and  pull  up  the  tares.     But  he 


76  THE    STOEY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

said  No,  for  fear,  while  you  are  pulling  up  the 
tares,  you  may  pull  up  the  wheat  also  with 
them.  Let  both  the  tares  and  the  wheat  grow 
together  until  harvest,  that  is,  until  the  time 
when  the  wheat  is  ripe. 

Then,  the  owner  said,  I  will  tell  my  reapers, 
when  they  cut  down  the  wheat,  to  gather  the 
tares  together,  and  bind  them  in  bundles  and 
burn  them.  But  the  wheat  they  shall  carry 
to  my  barn,  and  put  it  away  safely  there. 

And  Jesus  explained  this  parable  to  his 
disciples  also.  The  wheat  and  the  tares  mean 
all  the  people  who  live  in  this  world.  The 
wheat  means  the  good  people,  and  the  tares 
mean  the  wicked  people.  The  enemy  who 
sowed  the  tares  is  Satan,  that  is,  he  is  the 
one  who  tempts  and  persuades  j)eople  to  be 
wicked. 

And  the  good  and  the  bad  people,  will  live 
together  in  the  world  till  the  Judgment  Day. 
Then  God  will  send  his  angels  to  take  the  good 
up  to  heaven,  but  the  bad  will  be  sent  away  to 
the' place  of  punishment. 

And  Jesus  told  a  parable  about  a  merchant- 
man, or  man  who  bought  things  to  sell  them 
again.  This  man  in  the  parable  bought  pearls. 
Pearls  are  beautiful  little  stones  that  are  worn 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  77 

in  rings,  and  bracelets.  And  this  merchant- 
man was  looking  for  some  to  buy. 

At  last  he  saw  one  that  was  more  beautiful 
than  any  he  had  ever  seen  before.  But  the 
person  it  belonged  to  asked  so  much  for  it,  that 
the  merchantman  had  not  enough  money  to 
buy  it.  Therefore  he  went  away  and  sold 
everything  he  had,  so  that  he  might  come  back 
and  buy  that  one  precious  pearl. 

And  this  is  the  way  persons  feel  who  want 
to  have  their  sins  forgiven.  They  want  it  so 
much  that  they  cannot  be  happy  till  it  is  done ; 
and  they  are  willing  to  stop  doing  everything 
that  displeases  God,  so  that  they  can  go  to  him, 
and  ask  him  to  forgive  their  sins  for  them. 

For  until  we  stop  doing  the  things  he  has 
forbidden,  we  cannot  expect  God  to  forgive  us, 
no  matter  how  often  we  may  ask  him. 

And  Jesus  spoke  another  parable  to  his 
disciples,  about  the  fishermen  who  fish  with  a 
net.  They  sail  out  in  their  boat,  taking  their 
net  with  them.  When  they  get  out  a  good 
way,  they  let  their  net  down  into  the  water  to 
catch  the  fish  that  are  there. 

Then  they  turn  the  boat  around  and  row  it 
slowly  back  to  the  shore,  dragging  the  net  after 
them.    When  they  reach  the  shore,  the  fisher- 


78  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

men  draw  the  net  up  out  of  the  water,  and  take 
out  the  fish  that  have  been  caught  in  it. 

But  the  fish  are  of  different  kinds.  Some 
are  good;  these  the  men  put  in  baskets  to 
keej>.  And  some  are  bad;  these  they  throw 
away. 

And  Jesus  said  that  so  it  would  be  at  the 
Judgment  Day.  For  he  told  his  discrples 
again,  that  the  angels  would  come  down  from 
heaven  on  that  day,  and  would  separate  the 
righteous  from  the  wicked,  and  take  the  wicked 
to  the  place  where  they  should  be  jmnished. 

And  when  it  was  evening,  Jesus  and  his 
disciples  went  into  a  boat  to  sail  over  to  the 
other  side  of  the  sea.  As  they  were  going, 
there  came  a  storm  on  the  sea,  and  the  great 
waves  dashed  into  the  boat  and  filled  it  with 
water,  so  that  is  was  ready  to  sink. 

But  Jesus  was  asleep  in  another  part  of 
the  boat,  with  his  head  resting  on  a  pillow. 
And  the  disciples  were  greatly  afraid,  and 
they  came  and  wakened  him,  saying,  Lord 
save  us,  or  we  shall  be  lost.  And  Jesus  rose 
up  and  spoke  to  the  winds  and  the  waves,  and 
he  said  to  them,  Peace,  be  still.  And  at  once 
the  winds  stopped  and  blew  no  more,  and  the 
waves  grew  still  and  smooth. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  79 

Then  Jesus  said  to  his  disciples,  Why  were 
you  afraid?  How  is  it  that  you  have  no  faith? 
He  meant  to  ask  them  how  they  could  be 
afraid,  while  he  was  with  them,  that  the  winds 
or  the  waves  would  do  them  any  harm. 

And  they  sailed  over  to  the  other  side  of  the 
sea.  When  Jesus  came  out  of  the  boat,  there 
met  him  a  man  who  had  an  evil  spirit.  And 
the  evil  spirit  made  the  man  act  like  a  person 
who  had  lost  his  senses,  and  was  crazy.  He 
had  torn  off  his  clothes  and  was  very  fierce,  so 
that  every  one  was  afraid  to  pass  by  that  way. 

His  friends  had  often  put  chains  on  him,  to 
keep  him  at  home,  but  he  broke  the  chains 
and  went  and  lived  in  the  caves,  that  had  been 
hollowed  out  of  rocks,  to  bury  dead  persons  in. 
And  always,  both  in  the  night  and  in  the  day, 
he  was  wandering  in  the  caves  and  in  the 
mountains,  crying  out  with  a  loud  voice,  and 
cutting  himself  with  stones. 

But  when  he  saw  Jesus  a  good  way  off,  he 
knew  who  it  was.  And  he  ran  to  him,  and 
bowed  down  at  his  feet,  and  said,  What  have 
I  to  do  with  thee,  Jesus,  thou  Son  of  God?  I 
beg  thee  not  to  punish  me. 

Now  there  was,  near  the  mountain,  a  great 
herd  of  swine,  feeding  on  the  grass,  or  bushes, 


80  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

that  grew  there.  There  were  about  two  thou- 
sand of  them.  And  the  evil  spirits  that  were 
in  the  man,  (for  more  than  one  spirit  had  gone 
into  him,)  begged  Jesus  that  if  he  made  them 
go  out  of  the  man,  he  would  let  them  go  into 
the  herd  of  swine. 

And  Jesus  said  to  them,  Go.  And  when 
the  spirits  had  come  out  of  the  man,  they 
went  into  the  herd  of  swine,  and  at  once  the 
whole  herd  ran  down  a  steep  place  into  the 
sea,  and  were  all  drowned  in  the  waters. 

And  the  men  who  took  care  of  them  fled 
away  into  the  city  that  was  near,  and  told  the 
people  of  all  that  had  happened.  Then  the 
people  came  out  and  they  saw  Jesus,  and  the 
man  who  before  had  the  evil  spirits;  but  now 
the  man  was  sitting  quietly,  with  his  clothes 
on,  and  in  his  right  mind. 

But  when  the  men  who  took  care  of  the 
swine  told  the  people  of  what  Jesus  had  done, 
and  how  the  swine  had  been  drowned  in  the 
sea,  the  people  were  afraid,  and  they  begged 
Jesus  to  go  away  from  their  city. 

Then  he  went  into  the  boat  to  go  back  to 
the  other  side  of  the  sea.  And  the  man,  out 
of  whom  he  had  cast  the  evil  spirits,  came  and 
begged  that  he  might  go  with  him. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  81 

But  Jesus  told  him  to  go  to  his  home  and 
his  friends,  and  to  tell  them  how  he  had  been 
made  well.  Then  the  man  went  and  besan 
to  tell  all  the  people  in  that  country  what 
Jesus  had  done  for  him. 

Jesus  went  again  into  the  city  of  Caper- 
naum. And  one  of  the  rulers,  or  chief  men, 
of  the  synagogue  in  that  city,  came  to  him,  in 
great  trouble,  and  kneeled  down  at  his  feet, 
and  said,  My  little  daughter  is  sick,  and  going 
to  die.  I  pray  that  thou  wilt  come  and  lay 
thy  hands  on  her,  that  she  may  get  well. 

And  Jesus  went  with  the  man,  and  so  did 
his  disciples;  and  many  other  persons  followed 
after  him  and  crowded  around  him.  Anions- 
them  was  a  woman  who  had  been  sick  for 
twelve  years,  with  a  disease  which  no  doctor 
could  cure.  For  she  had  tried  many,  and 
given  them  all  the  money  she  had,  but  instead 
of  getting  better  she  rather  grew  worse. 

When  she  heard  that  Jesus  was  there,  she 
said  to  herself,  If  I  can  only  come  behind  him, 
in  the  crowd,  and  put  out  my  hand  and  touch 
his  clothes,  I  shall  get  well.  So  she  came  in 
the  crowd  behind  Jesus  and  touched  him,  and 
as  soon  as  she  did  it  she  felt  that  her  sickness 
was  cured. 

6 


82  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Then  Jesus  turned  round  toward  the  people 
that  followed  him,  and  said,  Who  touched  me  ? 
His  disciples,  who  had  not  seen  the  woman 
touch  Jesus,  answered  him,  saying,  Thou  seest 
how  many  persons  are  pressing  against  thee, 
and  dost  thou  ask,  Who  touched  me? 

But  Jesus  knew  that  some  one  had  touched 
him  and  been  made  well,  and  he  looked  round 
to  see  her  who  had  done  this  thing. 

When  the  woman  saw  that  he  knew  it,  and 
that  she  could  not  hide  herself  from  him,  she 
came  trembling  with  fear,  and  kneeling  down 
at  his  feet,  told  before  all  the  people  why  she 
had  touched  Jesus,  and  how  in  a  moment  she 
was  made  well. 

Then  Jesus  spoke  kindly  to  her  and  told 
her  not  to  be  afraid,  for  he  said,  because  she 
had  faith  in  him,  and  believed  he  could  make 
her  well,  she  was  cured  of  her  sickness. 

While  he  was  yet  speaking  to  the  woman, 
there  came  a  messenger  from  the  ruler  of  the 
synagogue's  house,  who  brought  him  word  that 
his  daughter  was  dead.  Therefore  it  wTas  not 
worth  while,  the  messenger  said,  to  bring  the 
Master  any  further. 

But  when  Jesus  heard  this,  he  said  to  the 
ruler  of  the  synagogue,  Do  not  be  afraid ;  only 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  83 

trust  in  me,  and  thy  daughter  shall  be  made 
alive  again.  So  they  went  on  to  the  ruler's 
house. 

When  they  came  there,  all  the  people  were 
weeping  and  crying  out,  because  the  child  was 
dead.  Jesus  said  to  them,  Why  do  you  weep? 
The  child  is  not  dead,  but  sleeping.  He  meant 
that  she  would  soon  rise  up  from  the  dead,  like 
one  who  awakes  from  sleep. 

But  when  he  said  this  the  people  would  not 
believe  him,  and  they  mocked  him  and  laughed 
at  what  he  told  them.  Then  Jesus  put  them 
all  out,  and  took  three  of  his  disciples,  Peter, 
and  James,  and  John,  and  also  the  father  and 
mother  of  the  child,  and  he  went  with  them 
into  the  room  where  she  lay. 

And  he  took  her  by  the  hand,  and  said,  I 
say  to  thee,  Arise.  And  as  soon  as  he  had 
spoken  these  words,  she  came  to  life  again,  and 
rose  up  from  her  bed  and  walked.  For  she 
was  twelve  years  old.  And  Jesus  commanded 
that  some  food  should  be  given  to  her. 

As  Jesus  went  away  from  the  ruler's  house, 
two  blind  men  followed  him.  And  they  cried 
out  after  him,  saying,  Have  mercy  on  us.  They 
meant  that  he  should  make  their  eyes  well,  so 
that  they  might  see. 


84  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Jesus  asked  them  whether  they  believed  he 
was  able  to  do  this.  They  answered,  Yes,  Lord. 
Then  he  told  them  that  because  they  had  faith, 
and  believed  he  was  able  to  do  it,  he  would 
make  them  well.  And  he  put  out  his  hand 
and  touched  their  eyes,  and  at  once  they 
could  see. 

Then  he  commanded  them  not  to  tell  any  one 
who  had  cured  them.  Yet,  when  they  went 
out  of  the  house,  they  told  the  people  in  all 
that  country  what  he  had  done  for  them. 

And  some  persons  brought  to  him  a  man 
who  had  an  evil  spirit.  And  the  man  was 
dumb,  because  the  spirit  would  not  allow  him 
to  speak.  But  Jesus  cast  out  the  evil  spirit, 
and,  after  that,  the  man  was  able  to  speak. 

And  all  the  people  who  had  known  that  he 
was  dumb,  were  surprised  when  they  heard 
him  speaking,  and  they  said  they  had  never 
seen  such  a  thing  done  before  in  the  land  of 
Israel. 

And  Jesus  went  into  the  cities  and  villages 
where  the  Jews  lived,  and  he  preached  the 
gospel  to  them. 

I  have  told  you  before,  that  gospel  means 
good  news.  And  the  good  news  of  the  gospel 
is  this:  That  Jesus  came  down  from  heaven  to 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  85 

be  punished  for  our  sins,  so  that,  if  we  repent 
of  those  sins,  and  take  him  for  our  Saviour,  we 
shall  not  be  punished  for  them  at  the  Judg- 
ment Day. 

We  deserve  to  be  punished  for  them,  and  we 
should  be  punished,  if  he  had  not  been  punished 
in  our  place.  But  he  knew  how  dreadful  that 
punishment  would  be,  and  because  he  loved  us, 
he  was  willing  to  bear  it  for  us. 

And  now  Jesus  went  through  the  villages 
and  cities,  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  Jews 
who  lived  there.  Yet  he  could  not,  by  him- 
self, preach  to  all  the  Jews  in  the  land  of 
Israel;  there  were  too  many  of  them.  There- 
fore he  called  his  twelve  apostles  to  him,  and 
sent  them  out  also  to  preach  to  the  people. 

Before  they  went  he  gave  them  power  to 
do  miracles;  to  cast  out  evil  spirits,  to  make 
sick  people  well,  and  dead  people  alive  again. 
Jesus  gave  them  this  power,  so  that  when  the 
people  saw  them  do  these  wonderful  works, 
they  might  believe  the  things  that  the  apostles 
preached  to  them. 

Then  the  apostles  went  out  into  the  different 
cities  and  towns,  and  preached  to  the  people. 
Afterward  they  came  back  to  Jesus  and  told 
him  of  everything  they  had  done. 


86  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


CHAPTEK  VI. 


jesus  feeds  fbi:  thousand  persons.  he  walks  on  the 
water;  heals  a  blind  man;  is  transfigured; 
casts  out  an  evil  spirit  |  heals  ten  lepers,  and 
speaks  parables  to  the  people. 


A* 


ND  Jesus  said  to  his  apostles,  Come,  let»us 
go  to  some  place  alone,  that  you  may  rest 
awhile.  For  there  were  so  many  persons  around 
them,  coming  and  going,  that  they  had  not  time 
to  themselves  even  to  eat.  Then  they  went  with 
Jesus  in  a  boat,  and  sailed  over  to  the  other  side 
of  the  sea  of  Galilee. 

But  when  the  people  heard  of  their  going, 
they  followed  after  Jesus,  not  in  boats  on  the 
water,  but  on  foot,  walking  around  by  the  side 
of  the  sea,  until  they  came  to  the  place  where 
Jesus  was.  So  many  followed  him  in  this  way, 
that  a  great  multitude  of  men,  and  women,  and 
children,  came  to  that  place. 

In  the  evening  the  apostles  spoke  to  Jesus, 
and  said,  This  is  a  lonely  place  where  there  is 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  87 

nothing  to  eat,  and  it  is  now  near  night ;  there- 
fore send  the  people  away,  that  they  may  go 
into  the  villages  that  are  near  and  buy  them- 
selves food.  Jesus  said,  They  need  not  go 
away ;  give  you  them  something  to  eat, 

The  apostles  answered,  Shall  we  go  and  buy 
as  much  as  two  hundred  pennyworth  of  bread 
for  them  ?  And  even  this  would  not  be  enough 
to  give  each  one  a  little.  Jesus  said  to  the 
apostles,  How  many  loaves  of  bread  have  you? 
Go  and  see.  When  they  knew,  they  answered, 
Five  loaves  of  bread,  and  two  small  fishes. 

And  Jesus  commanded  the  apostles  to  make 
all  the  people  sit  down  on  the  green  grass. 
And  he  took  the  five  loaves  and  the  two  fishes 
into  his  hands,  and  looked  up  to  heaven,  and 
thanked  God  for  them.  Then  he  broke  the 
loaves  in  pieces,  and  gave  the  pieces  to  the 
apostles ;  the  fishes  he  gave  them  also.  And 
the  apostles  gave  them  to  the  people. 

And  Jesus  made  those  five  loaves  and  two 
fishes,  to  increase,  and  grow  to  be  more  and 
more,  as  the  apostles  were  giving  them  to  the 
people,  until  there  was  enough  for  all  that 
great  multitude. 

When  they  had  done  eating,  Jesus  told  the 
apostles  to  gather  up  what  was  left,  so  that 


88  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

nothing  should  be  wasted,  or  lost.  And  the 
apostles  did  as  Jesus  commanded,  and  they 
gathered  up  of  the  pieces  that  were  left,  twelve 
baskets  full.  Those  that  had  eaten  were  about 
five  thousand  men,  beside  the  women  and 
children  who  were  there. 

When  the  })eople  saw  this  great  miracle 
which  Jesus  had  done,  they  wanted  to  take 
him  and  make  him  their  king.  But  he  left 
them,  and  went  up  on  a  mountain,  alone,  to 
pray.  The  apostles  he  sent  away  in  a  boat,  to 
sail  over  to  the  other  side  of  the  sea  to  the 
city  of  Capernaum. 

And  in  the  evening  they  were  out  in  the 
middle  of  the  sea,  rowing  the  boat  with  oars, 
because  the  wind  was  against  them,  but  Jesus 
stood  on  the  shore.  From  there  he  could 
see  them  working  at  the  oars,  for  the  waves 
were  rough  and  stormy.  And  in  the  night 
he  went  out  to  them  walking  on  the  sea. 

But  when  the  apostles  saw  him  coming, 
they  were  afraid,  and  said,  It  is  a  spirit. 
And  they  cried  out  with  fear.  But  Jesus 
spoke  to  them,  saying,  Be  not  afraid,  it  is  I. 
Then  Peter  answered  out  of  the  boat,  and 
said,  Lord,  if  it  be  thou,  bid  me  come  to  thee 
on  the  water. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  89 

Jesus  said  to  him,  Come.  And  Peter  got 
down  out  of  the  boat  and  walked  on  the  water 
to  go  to  Jesus.  But  when  he  heard  the  noise 
of  the  wind,  and  saw  the  great  waves  dashing 
around  him,  he  was  afraid  and  began  to  sink, 
and  he  cried  out,  Lord  save  me.  And  Jesus 
stretched  out  his  hand,  and  caught  him,  and 
kept  him  from  sinking. 

Then  Jesus  asked  him  why  he  had  not  faith ; 
that  is,  why  he  did  not  trust  in  him  to  keep 
him  from  harm.  For  if  Peter  had  trusted  in 
Jesus,  and  believed,  in  his  heart,  that  Jesus 
would  take  care  of  him,  he  would  not  have 
sunk  down  into  the  water. 

Then  Jesus  and  Peter  came  into  the  boat, 
and,  at  once,  the  wind  was  still;  and,  in  a 
moment,  the  boat  came  to  the  shore  at  the 
place  where  the  apostles  wanted  to  be.  It 
was  Jesus  who  had  stilled  the  wind,  and  made 
the  boat  come  to  the  shore. 

And  when  the  apostles  saw  this  miracle, 
they  bowed  down  and  worshipped  him,  and 
said,  Truly  thou  art  the  Son  of  God.  As  soon 
as  they  had  come  out  of  the  boat,  on  to  the 
land,  the  men  who  lived  there  knew  that  it 
was  Jesus.  And  they  ran  through  all  that 
country,  telling  the  people  he  had  come. 


90  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Then  they  began  to  carry  sick  persons,  on 
beds,  to  the  place  where  Jesus  was.  And 
wherever  he  went,  into  cities  and  villages,  they 
brought  those  who  were  sick,  and  laid  them  in 
the  streets,  and  begged  him  to  let  them  only 
touch  his  clothes;  and  every  one  who  touched 
him  was  made  perfectly  well. 

And  Jesus  fed  the  people  again  with  only 
a  few  loaves  and  fishes.  For  a  great  multitude 
of  persons  had  come  to  hear  him,  and  they 
had  now  been  with  him  three  days  and  had 
nothing  to  eat. 

And  he  said  to  his  disciples,  If  I  send  them 
away  to  their  homes  without  any  food,  they  will 
grow  tired  and  weak  on  the  way,  for  many  of 
them  have  come  from  far.  And  he  asked  the 
disciples,  How  many  loaves  have  you?  They 
answered,  Seven,  and  a  few  small  fishes. 

Then  Jesus  commanded  the  people  to  sit 
down  on  the  ground:  And  he  took  the  seven 
loaves  and  the  fishes,  and  thanked  God  for 
them;  and  he  broke  the  loaves  in  pieces,  and 
gave  the  pieces  to  the  disciples,  and  they  gave 
them  to  the  people. 

And  Jesus  made  the  loaves  and  the  fishes  to 
increase  (as  he  did  before  when  he  fed  the 
multitude)  until  every  one  had  enough.     And 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  01 

they  gathered  up,  of  the  pieces  that  were  left, 
seven  baskets  full.  The  persons  who  had 
eaten  were  about  four  thousand;  and  after  he 
had  fed  them,  Jesus  sent  them  away. 

And  he  came  to  a  city  called  Bethsaida,  and 
they  brought  a  blind  man  to  him  and  begged 
Jesus  to  touch  him,  that  he  might  be  made 
well.  And  Jesus  took  him  by  the  hand  and 
led  him  out  of  the  town.  And  he  spat  on  his 
eyes,  and  put  his  hands  on  them,  and  asked 
the  blind  man  whether  he  could  see. 

He  answered  that  he  saw  men,  yet  they  did 
not  look  like  men,  for  they  were  so  tall,  and 
high,  that  they  looked  like  trees  walking. 
Then  Jesus  put  his  hands  again  on  the  man's 
eyes  and  made  him  look  up,  and  now  he  could 
see  every  thing  clearly. 

After  this  Jesus  took  three  of  his  apostles, 
Peter  and  James  and  John,  and  went  up  on  a 
lonely  mountain  to  pray.  And  while  he  was 
praying,  his  face  was  changed,  so  that  it  shone 
bright  like  the  sun;  and  his  clothes  looked 
white  as  snow. 

And  all  at  once  two  men  were  with  him. 
They  had  come  from  that  world  where  the 
righteous  go  after  they  die.  Their  names  were 
Moses  and   Elijah;    they  had   been  prophets 


92  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

when  they  lived  on  the  earth,  and  good  and 
holy  men.  And  now  they  came  back  for  a 
little  while  to  talk  with  Jesus  about  his  dying 
at  Jerusalem  for  all  the  people's  sins. 

When  the  apostles  saw  these  two  men  they 
knew  who  they  were;  for  they  did  not  look 
like  men  who  live  in  this  world.  They  looked 
beautiful  and  glorious,  as  we  suppose  the 
righteous  may  look,  up  in  heaven. 

And  presently  there  came  a  bright  cloud 
that  covered  the  apostles,  and  a  voice  spoke 
out  of  the  cloud.  It  said,  This  is  my  beloved 
Son;  hear  him.  It  was  God's  voice,  telling 
the  apostles  that  Jesus  was  his  Son,  and  com- 
manding them  to  obey  what  he  said  to  them. 

When  the  apostles  heard  it  they  bowed 
down  with  their  faces  to  the  ground;  for  they 
were  greatly  afraid.  But  Jesus  came  and 
touched  them,  and  told  them  to  rise  up  and 
not  be  afraid. 

And  they  rose  up  and  looked  round,  and 
Moses  and  Elijah  were  gone.  And  Jesus  told 
the  apostles  not  to  tell  any  one  of  what  they 
had  seen,  until  after  he  had  died  arid  had  risen 
up  again  from  the  dead.  Then  the  apostles 
asked  one  another  what  he  could  mean  by 
saying  he  would  rise  up  from  the  dead.     We 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  93 

shall  read  afterward  what  Jesus  meant  by 
saying  this. 

The  next  day,  when  they  had  come  down 
from  the  mountain,  a  man  came  to  Jesus,  and 
kneeled  down  before  him,  and  said,  Master,  I 
pray  thee  help  my  son;  for  he  is  my  only  child. 

And  an  evil  spirit  has  gone  into  him  that 
makes  him  fall,  sometimes  into  the  fire,  and 
sometimes  into  the  water,  trying  to  kill  him. 
And  I  took  him  to  thy  apostles,  for  them  to 
make  the  evil  spirit  go  out  of  him,  but  they 
could  not. 

Jesus  answered,  Bring  thy  son  to  me.  As 
they  brought  him,  the  spirit  threw  him  down, 
and  he  rolled  on  the  ground  and  foamed  at  the 
mouth.  And  Jesus  said  to  the  evil  spirit,  I 
command  thee  to  come  out  of  him,  and  go  no 
more  into  him. 

Then  the  spirit  cried  with  a  loud  voice,  and 
came  out  of  the  young  man,  but  he  shook  him 
greatly,  and  left  him  weak  and  not  able  to 
move?  like  a  person  who  is  dead,  so  that  many 
who  saw  him  lying  on  the  ground,  said,  He  is 
dead. 

But  Jesus  took  him  by  the  hand,  and  lifted 
him  up,  and  he  stood  on  his  feet  and  was  well. 
And  Jesus  gave  him  to  his  father. 


94  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Now  the  men  who  lived  in  the  different  cities 
of  the  land  of  Israel,  used  to  send  money  to 
the  priests  who  were  staying  at  the  temple  in 
Jerusalem.  Each  man  sent  a  piece  of  silver 
money  to  them  every  year. 

And  while  Jesus  and  his  apostles  were  in 
the  city  of  Capernaum,  some  men  came  and 
asked  Peter  whether  his  Master,  (that  was, 
Jesus,)  would  give  them  some  money  to  send 
to  the  priests. 

Jesus  knew  they  had  asked  this.  And  when 
he  came  into  the  house,  he  told  Peter  to  go  to 
the  seashore,  which  was  not  far  off,  and  to 
throw  a  hook  and  line  into  the  water;  and  as 
soon  as  a  fish  was  caught  on  it,  to  take  the 
fish  up  and  look  into  its  mouth.  There,  Jesus 
said,  Peter  would  find  a  piece  of  money;  and 
he  said  to  him,  Give  that  to  the  men  for  me 
and  for  thee. 

And  Peter  did  as  Jesus  told  him,  and  he 
found  the  piece  of  money  in  the  fish's  mouth, 
and  took  it  and  gave  it  to  the  men. 

And  Jesus  told  the  disciples  that  if  one  of 
them  should  do  wrong  to  another,  and  after- 
ward should  come  and  confess  his  fault,  the  one 
he  had  done  wrong  to  must  forgive  him.  Peter 
asked  Jesus  how  many  times  he  should  forgive 


THE    STOBY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  95 

him,  whether  it  should  be  as  many  as  seven 
times. 

Jesus  told  him  that  they  should  forgive  one 
another,  not  only  seven  times,  but  seventy  times 
seven :  he  meant  that  they  should  do  it  always. 

And  he  spoke  a  parable  about  a  king  whose 
servants  owed  him  money ;  and  the  king  wan- 
ted them  to  pay  this  money.  And  one  of  the 
servants  was  brought  that  owed  him  a  great 
deal,  as  much  as  many  thousands  of  dollars. 
But  he  had  nothing  to  pay  the  king  with. 

Now,  in  that  country,  when  a  man  owed 
money  and  could  not  pay  it,  the  person  he 
owed  it  to  might  take  him,  and  his  wife,  and 
his  children,  and  sell  them  for  slaves. 

And  because  this  servant  could  not  pay 
what  he  owed  the  king,  the  king  commanded 
that  he,  and  his  wife  and  his  children,  should 
be  sold.  And  the  money  that  was  paid  for 
them  was  to  be  given  to  the  king. 

But  when  the  servant  heard  what  the  king 
had  commanded,  he  was  in  great  trouble,  and 
he  kneeled  down  at  the  king's  feet,  and  said, 
that  if  he  would  only  wait  awhile,  and  have 
patience  with  him,  then  he  would  pay  him  all 
that  he  owed  him. 

He  would  work  and  earn  the  money,  or  he 


96  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

would  get  it  from  persons  who  owed  money  to 
him :  and  then,  he  said,  he  would  come  back 
and  pay  the  king. 

And  when  the  king  heard  what  he  said,  and 
saw  what  trouble  he  was  in,  he  pitied  him  so 
much  that  he  forgave  him  the  debt  altogether, 
and  told  him  that  he  need  not  pay  it  at  all. 

But  after  the  king  had  forgiven  him,  this 
same  servant  went  out  and  met  a  fellow-servant, 
that  is,  another  of  the  king's  servants,  who  owed 
him  some  money.  It  was  not  much  this  fellow- 
servant  owed  him,  only  a  hundred  pence.  Yet 
he  was  so  poor  he  had  nothing  to  pay  it  with. 

Then  the  king's  servant  was  very  angry  with 
his  fellow-servant,  and  he  caught  him  by  the 
throat,  and  said  to  him,  Pay  me  what  thou 
owest.  Then  his  fellow-servant  kneeled  down 
at  his  feet  and  begged  that  he  would  have 
patience  with  him,  and  wait  awhile,  for  then, 
he  said,  he  would  pay  him  all. 

But  the  king's  servant  would  not  wait.  He 
took  his  fellow-servant  to  prison,  to  be  shut  up 
there  until  he  should  pay  the  debt. 

When  the  other  servants  that  were  in  the 
king's  house  saw  what  had  been  done,  they  were 
very  sorry,  and  they  went  and  told  the  king. 

Then   the   king,  when   he   had   called   his 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  97 

servant,  said  to  him,  O,  thou  wicked  servant, 
I  pitied  thee  and  forgave  thee,  when  thou 
didst  ask  me;  and  shouldest  thou  not  have 
pitied  thy  fellow-servant,  as  I  pitied  thee? 
And  the  king  was  greatly  displeased,  and  sent 
him  to  be  punished  till  he  should  pay  all  that 
he  owed  him. 

In  this  parable  the  king  means  God,  and 
the  servant  who  owed  him  so  much,  means  us, 
because  we  have  sinned  so  often  against  him. 
And  as  the  king  punished  that  servant,  because 
he  would  not  forgive  his  fellow-servant,  so  God 
will  punish  us  if  we  do  not  forgive  one  another 
our  trespasses,  or  sins. 

And  as  Jesus  and  his  apostles  were  journey- 
ing toward  the  city  of  Jerusalem,  they  came 
near  to  a  village,  where  some  people  lived  who 
were  called  Samaritans.  And  Jesus  sent  two 
of  his  apostles,  named  James  and  John,  into 
the  village,  to  ask  the  Samaritans  if  they  would 
not  let  him  stop  there  and  rest,  and  have  food 
to  eat. 

Now  the  Samaritans  had  quarreled  with  the 
Jews  and  were  enemies  to  them.  Arid  because 
Jesus  was  a  Jew,  they  would  not  allow  him  and 
his  apostles,  to  stop  at  their  village.  Then 
James  and  John  were  very  angry,  and  they 


98  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

came  to  Jesus  and  asked  him,  if  he  would  not 
let  them  call  down  fire  from  heaven,  to  burn 
up  the  Samaritans. 

But  Jesus  was  displeased  with  James  and 
John  for  asking  him  this;  he  told  them  that 
he  had  not  come  into  the  world  to  destroy 
men's  lives,  but  to  save  them.  And  he  did 
nothing  to  punish  the  Samaritans  for  their 
unkindness,  but  he  went  on  to  another  village 
and  stopped  there  to  rest. 

I  have  told  you  about  the  leprosy,  that  it 
was  a  dreadful  disease,  or  sickness,  which  no 
one  but  God  could  cure ;  and  that  any  person 
who  got  it  had  to  leave  his  family  and  his 
home,  and  go  away  to  live  alone,  or  else  with 
other  persons,  only,  who  had  the  leprosy  like 
himself. 

And  as  Jesus  and  his  apostles  were  going 
toward  Jerusalem,  there  met  him  ten  men  who 
had  the  leprosy.  These  men  were  not  allowed 
to  touch,  or  even  come  near  to,  persons  who 
were  well.  Therefore  they  did  not  come  near 
to  Jesus  and  his  apostles,  but  they  stood  a  good 
way  off,  and  cried  out  with  loud  voices,  saying, 
Jesus,  Master,  have  mercy  on  us.  They  meant 
that  he  should  make  them  well. 

Now  when  any  person  had  been  sent  away 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  99 

from  his  home,  because  he  had  the  leprosy, 
even  if  he  got  well,  he  could  not  come  back 
until  he  went  to  the  priest.  Then  the  priest 
looked  at  him,  to  see  if  he  was  really  well,  and 
if  he  was,  the  priest  gave  him  permission  to 
go  back  to  his  home  and  live  with  his  family 
again. 

And  when  Jesus  heard  these  poor  men  cry- 
ing out  to  him,  he  told  them  to  go  and  show 
themselves  to  the  priest.  And  they  went,  and 
while  they  were  going,  were  all  made  well. 

And  one  of  them,  when  he  saw  that  he  was 
well,  came  back  to  Jesus,  and  kneeled  down 
at  his  feet,  and  thanked  him  for  curing  him. 
Then  Jesus  said,  Were  there  not  ten  who  were 
cured?  Where  are  the  other  nine?  Only  this 
one  comes  back  to  thank  God  for  what  has 
been  done  to  him. 

Let  us  remember,  children,  whenever  we 
have  been  sick  and  got  well  again,  to  thank 
God  for  it.  For  no  matter  what  doctor  we 
had,  or  what  medicine  we  took,  they  could  not 
have  cured  us  unless  God  had  made  them  able 
to  do  it. 

And  Jesus  spoke  a  parable  about  a  man  who 
went  on  a  journey  from  the  city  of  Jerusalem 
to  another  city  a  good  way  off,  named  Jericho. 


100  THE   STOEY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Now  the  road  from  Jerusalem  to  Jericho  was 
very  lonely  and  wild,  and  there  were  rocks  and 
caves  along  it  where  thieves  used  to  hide. 

And  as  this  man  was  going  on  his  journey, 
suddenly  some  thieves  came  out  from  their 
hiding  place,  and  stopped  him.  And  they 
robbed  him  of  all  that  he  had,  and  took  even 
his  clothes  from  him.  They  not  only  did  this, 
but  they  beat  him  and  wounded  him,  and  then 
went  away  and  left  him  half  dead. 

And  while  he  was  lying  on  the  ground,  too 
weak  to  get  up,  there  happened  to  come  a 
priest  that  way.  Now  the  wounded  man  was 
a  Jew,  and  the  priest  was  a  Jew  also. 

Beside  this,  the  priest  was  one  of  God's 
ministers,  who  stayed  at  the  temple  and  taught 
the  people  to  be  kind  to  each  other,  and  to  love 
each  other.  Therefore  we  should  think  that 
the  priest  would  surely  be  kind  to  this  poor 
wounded  Jew. 

But  he  was  not;  for  when  he  came  near  him 
he  pretended  not  to  see  him,  and  crossed  over 
to  the  other  side  of  the  road  and  passed  by. 
He  did  this  because  he  did  not  want  to  take 
care  of  him  himself,  or  to  pay  any  one  else  for 
taking  care  of  him. 

And  after  the  priest  had  passed  by,  a  man, 


THE   STORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  101 

called  a  Levite,  came  that  way.  This  Levite 
was  a  Jew  too;  and  he  was  one  of  the  men 
who  helped  the  priests  in  teaching  the  people 
to  obey  God  and  love  one  another. 

Yet  he  did  not  help  the  wounded  man 
either,  but  he  passed  on,  as  the  priest  had 
done,  and  left  him  alone  in  the  place  where 
he  found  him. 

But  after  the  priest  and  the  Levite  had  gone, 
a  man  who  was  a  Samaritan  came  to  that  place. 
Now  I  have  told  you  that  the  Jews  and  the 
Samaritans  were  not  friends  with  each  other, 
but  they  had  quarreled  and  were  enemies. 
Therefore  we  should  not  be  surprised  to  hear 
that  this  Samaritan  had  gone  by  without  help- 
ing the  wounded  Jew. 

But  he  did  not  do  so.  For  when  he  saw 
him  he  pitied  him,  and  went  to  him  and  tied 
up  his  wounds  and  poured  oil  and  wine  on 
them  to  make  them  well.  Then  he  lifted  him 
up  on  the  beast  that  he  rode,  and  took  him  to 
an  inn  that  was  near,  and  he  nursed  him  there 
that  night. 

The  next  day  the  Samaritan  had  to  go  on 
his  journey,  but,  before  he  went,  he  took  out 
some  money  and  gave  it  to  the  man  who  kept 
the   inn,  and   told   him   to  take  care  of  the 


102  THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL. 

wounded  Jew.  If  it  should  cost  any  more 
than  the  money  he  gave  him,  the  Samaritan 
said  he  would  pay  it  when  he  came  to  the  inn 
at  another  time. 

In  this  parable  we  learn  what  it  is  that 
makes  us  a  friend,  or  neighbor,  to  another 
person.  It  is  not  belonging  to  the  same 
country,  or  nation,  that  makes  us  his  neighbor. 
Even  belonging  to  the  same  church  does  not. 
The  priest  and  the  Levite  belonged  to  the 
same  nation  and  the  same  church  with  the 
wounded  Jew,  yet  neither  of  them  was  his 
neighbor. 

But  the  Samaritan,  who  belonged  to  another 
nation,  was  his  neighbor,  because  he  was  kind 
to  him.  And  Jesus  meant  to  teach  us  by  this 
parable  that  we  should  be  like  the  Samaritan, 
that  is,  we  should  be  a  neighbor,  or  a  friend,  to 
every  person  we  can  do  any  good  to,  no  matter 
if  he  be  a  stranger,  or  even  an  enemy  to  us. 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  103 


CHAPTER  VII. 


JESUS  COMES  TO  BETHANY.  HE  TEACHES  THE  DISCIPLES  THE 
LORD'S  PRAYER  j  SENDS  OUT  THE  SEVENTY  DISCIPLES  | 
HEALS  THE  BLIND  MAN  AT  THE  POOL  OF  SILO  AM; 
RAISES  LAZARUS  FROM  THE  DEAD. 


AND  Jesus  came  to  a  village  called  Bethany, 
-^-  which  was  a  little  way  from  the  city  of 
Jerusalem.  A  woman  named  Martha  lived 
there,  and  she  asked  him  to  come  to  her  house. 
Martha  had  a  sister  named  Mary.  And  when 
Jesus  came  into  the  house,  Mary  sat  down  by 
his  feet  that  she  might  listen  to  the  things  that 
he  taught. 

Then  Martha,  because  she  had  all  the  work 
to  do,  was  displeased  with  her  sister.  And  she 
came  to  Jesus  and  asked  him  if  he  would  not 
bid  Mary  come  and  help  her. 

But  Jesus  told  Martha  that  Mary  did  right 
in  attending  to  the  things  he  taught  her.  There 
was  one  thing,  he  said,  it  was  more  important 
we  should  have,  than  anything  else;  and  Mary 


104  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

had  chosen  that  one  thing,  and  it  should  never 
be  taken  from  her.  Jesus  meant  that  Mary 
had  chosen  to  have  a  new  and  good  heart,  so 
that  she  might  be  one  of  God's  children. 

And  a  new  and  good  heart  is  what  all  of 
us  need  to  have.  And  when  we  have  it,  no- 
body can  take  it  from  us.  Other  things  can 
be  taken  from  us.  Suppose  we  are  rich  and 
have  a  great  deal  of  money — boxes  full  of 
silver  and  gold — some  one  may  come  and  rob 
us,  and  take  it  all  away.  Or  even. if  nobody 
takes  it  from  us,  when  we  die  we  must  go  away 
and  leave  it. 

But  if  we  have  a  new  heart,  nobody  can  rob 
us  of  that.  And  when  we  die  we  will  not  have 
to  leave  it;  but  we  will  take  it  with  us  to  that 
world  where  we  are  going,  and  where  we  shall 
see  Jesus,  who  gave  this  new  heart  to  us.    . 

And  one  of  the  disciples  asked  Jesus  to 
teach  them  what  they  should  say  when  they 
prayed  to  God.  And  he  said,  When  you  pray, 
say, 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven,  Hallowed  be 
thy  name.  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be 
done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven.  Give  us  this 
day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our  tres- 
passes, as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass  against 


THE   STORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  105 

us.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  evil;  for  thine  is  the  kingdom, 
the  power,  and  the  glory  forever.     Amen. 

This  is  called  the  Lord's  Prayer  because  the 
Lord  Jesus  taught  it  to  the  apostles.  It  was 
meant  not  only  for  them  to  say,  but  for  us,  too. 
But  when  we  say  it  we  must  think  of  what  it 
means.  For  unless  we  do  this,  and  really  want 
the  things  we  ask  for,  God  will  not  give  them 
to  us. 

And  now  I  want  you  to  attend  while  I  try 
and  explain  to  you,  what  the  words  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer  mean. 

Our  Father  who  art  in  heaven. 

When  we  say  these  words  we  are  speaking 
to  God:  we  are  calling  him  our  Heavenly 
Father.  And  if  he  is  our  Heavenly  Father, 
then  we  are  his  children. 

We  have  a  father  and  a  mother  in  this  world 
who  love  us  and  are  kind  to  us.  But  our 
Father  in  heaven  loves  us  more  and  is  kinder 
to  us  than  they  can  be;  and  we  should  love 
him  better  than  them,  or  any  one  else. 

Hallowed  he  thy  name. 

God's  name  is  hallowed  when  we  always  re- 
member to  speak  it  carefully,  because  it  is  His 
great  and  holy  name.     Sometimes  we  do  not 


106  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

remember  this.  But  when  we  say,  Hallowed 
be  thy  name,  we  are  asking  God  to  make  us 
remember  it,  so  that  we  may  never  speak  his 
name  carelessly,  or  thoughtlessly,  again. 

Thy  Kingdom  come. 

God  is  not  only  our  Father,  but  he  is  our 
King.  All  the  people  who  serve  him  belong 
to  his  Kingdom.  But  many  peoj3le  serve  Satan, 
and  take  him  for  their  king.  So  that  Satan 
has  a  kingdom  in  this  world,  too. 

Now,  when  we  say  in  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
Thy  Kingdom  come,  we  are  asking  God  to  put 
down  Satan's  kingdom,  and  to  make  all  the 
people  belong  to  his  Kingdom. 

Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 

God's  will  is  done  when  people  obey  him. 
We  know  it  is  done  up  in  heaven,  for  the 
angels  live  there  and  they  always  obey  God. 
And  we'say,  Thy  will  be  done  on  earth  as  it  is 
in  heaven,  because  we  want  all  the  people  on 
earth  to  obey  God,  as  the  angels  do  in  heaven. 

Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread. 

Every  day  we  need  food  to  eat.  No  matter 
how  much  we  ate  yesterday,  we  need  more  to- 
day, and  we  will  need  more  to-morrow,  and 
every  day  as  long  as  we  live.  The  food  we 
need  each  day  is  called  our  daily  bread.    When 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  107 

we  say,  Give  us  this  clay  our  daily  bread,  we 
ask  God  for  it. 

Perhaps  it  may  seem  as  if  it  did  not  come 
from  God,  because  our  parents,  or  our  friends, 
give  it  to  us.  But  they  could  not  give  it  to  us 
if  God  did  not  give  them  the  strength  to  work 
for  it,  or  the  money  to  buy  it  with. 

So  that  God  is  the  One  who  really  gives  us 
our  daily  bread,  and  he  is  the  One  we  should 
ask  for  it,  and  thank  for  it  when  we  get  it. 

And  forgive  us  our  trespasses,  as  we  forgive 
those  who  trespass  against  us. 

Our  trespasses  mean  our  sins.  If  we  ask 
God  to  forgive  us  for  our  sins,  we  ought  to  be 
willing  to  forgive  those  j)ersons  who  sin  against 
us.  And  in  this  Prayer  we  ask  God  to  forgive 
us  just  as  we  forgive  them.  So  that  unless  we 
forgive  other  persons,  we  cannot  expect  God  to 
forgive  us  our  trespasses,  or  sins. 

And  lead  us  not  into  temptation. 

When  a  person  persuades  us  to  do  anything 
that  will  displease  God,  then  he  tempts  us,  or 
leads  us  into  temptation.  Very  often  Satan 
leads  us  into  temptation;  and  sometimes  our 
own  wicked  hearts,  or  our  wicked  companions 
do  it. 

But  when  we  say,  Lead  us  not  into  tempta- 


108  THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

tion,  we  are  asking  God  not  to  let  Satan,  or 
any  one  else,  tempt  us  to  displease,  or  offend, 
him  again. 

But  deliver  us  from  evil. 

There  are  two  kinds  of  evil:  one  is  doing 
wrong,  that  is,  sinning.  This  is  the  worst  kind. 
The  other  kind  is  having  sickness,  and  pain 
and  trouble.  God  is  willing  to  deliver,  or 
save,  us  from  both  kinds  of  evil  if  we  love 
and  obey  him. 

For  thine  is  the  Kingdom. 

A  kingdom  is  a  country  that  is  ruled  over 
by  a  king.  There  are  a  great  many  different 
countries  and  kings  in  this  world.  But  God 
is  King  over  all  these  countries  and  all  these 
kings;  for  he  is  the  King  of  kings.  And  he 
is  King  in  heaven,  too.  That  is  the  reason 
we  say,  Thine  is  the  Kingdom. 

And  thine  is  the  power. 

God  is  the  only  one  who  is  able,  and  has  the 
power,  to  give  us  the  things  we  ask  for  in  the 
Lord's  Prayer.  No  one  else  can  keep  Safan 
from  tempting  us,  and  can  save  us  from  sick- 
ness and  trouble,  and  can  forgive  our  sins. 

And  thine  is  the  glory  forever.     Amen. 

Glory  means  praise  and  honor.  Sometimes 
when   a   king   rides  through   a   city,  all   the 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  109 

people  come  out  into  the  streets,  or  stand  at 
their  windows,  waving  flags  and  banners,  and 
shouting  out  his  name,  to  show  how  glad  they 
are  to  see  him.  Then  the  king  has  praise,  and 
honor,  and  glory. 

We  do  not  praise  God  in  this  way.  But  we 
praise  him  in  our  hearts,  and  sing  hymns  to 
him,  because  he  is  so  good  and  great  and  kind 
to  us.  And  all  the  angels  up  in  heaven  praise 
and  honor  God.  So  we  see  how  he  has  praise, 
and  honor,  and  glory.  And  he  will  have  these 
things  forever. 

The  last  word  in  the  Lord's  Prayer  is,  Amen. 
Amen  means,  So  may  it  be.  And  when  we 
say,  Amen,  we  mean  that  we  hope  God  will 
make  everything  to  be,  as  we  have  asked  it  may 
be,  in  the  prayer  we  have  just  said  to  him. 

And  Jesus  not  only  taught  the  disciples  to 
say  the  Lord's  Prayer,  but  he  taught  them  to 
pray  for  all  the  things  that  they  needed.  And 
he  said  that  God  would  give  them  those  things. 

For  he  asked  them  whether  they  did  not 
give  their  children  the  things  that  they  asked 
for.  Suppose  one  of  them  should  ask  for  a 
piece  of  bread,  he  said,  would  they  give  it  a 
stone  to  eat?  Or  if  it  should  ask  for  a  fish, 
would  they  give  it  a  serpent,  or  snake,  instead  ? 


110  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Then  Jesus  told  the  disciples  that  if  they 
gave  good  things  to  their  children,  surely  God 
would  give  good  things  to  his  children,  when 
they  prayed  to  him  for  them. 

And  Jesus  chose  seventy  more  of  his  dis- 
ciples, beside  the  twelve  apostles,  to  go  and 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  people.  And  the 
seventy  disciples  went  and  preached  as  Jesus 
commanded  them  to.  Afterward  they  came 
back  to  him,  and  told  him  of  all  they  had 
done. 

And  they  were  full  of  joy  because  they  had 
been  able  to  cast  out  evil  spirits  from  persons 
who  had  them.  For  Jesus  had  given  them 
power  to  do  this,  when  he  sent  them  out  to 
preach  to  the  people.  And  the  seventy  dis- 
ciples rejoiced  Avhen  they  found  that  the  evil 
spirits  had  to  obey  them. 

But  Jesus  told  them  not  to  rejoice  for  this, 
but  rather  to  rejoice  because  God  had  forgiven 
their  sins,  and  because  their  names  were  written 
in  God's  Book,  up  in  heaven. 

And  as  Jesus  came  from  the  temple  there 
was  a  blind  man  sitting  in  the  street,  begging. 
And  Jesus  stopped  and  spat  on  the  ground, 
and  made  clay  of  the  spittle,  and  he  put  the 
clay  on  the  blind  man's  eyes. 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  Ill 

Then  he  told  him  to  go  and  wash  his  eyes 
in  a  pool  of  water,  called  the  pool  of  Siloam. 
The  blind  man  went,  therefore,  and  washed, 
and  when  he  came  back  he  could  see.  But  it 
was  not  the  clay,  nor  the  water  in  the  pool,  but 
Jesus  himself,  who  had  made  him  able  to  see. 

Then  the  neighbors  who  had  known  the 
blind  man  before,  were  astonished  when  they 
saw  him  walking  by  himself,  like  any  other 
person,  with  no  one  to  lead  him.  And  they 
said,  Is  not  this  the  blind  man  that  used  to  sit 
in  the  street  and  beg?  Some  answered,  Yes, 
this  is  he.  Others  said,  It  is  not  the  blind 
man,  but  another  man  that  looks  like  him. 
But  the  man  himself  said,  I  am  he. 

Therefore  they  spoke  to  him,  and  asked  him 
how  it  was  that  he  could  see.  He  answered,  A 
man  that  is  named  Jesus,  made  clay  and  put  it 
on  my  eyes,  and  said  to  me,  Go  to  the  pool  of 
Siloam  and  wash.  And  I  went  and  washed, 
and  after  that  I  could  see. 

But  the  men  who  talked  with  him  were  not 
satisfied  with  what  he  told  them  about  the  way 
he  was  made  able  to  see;  so  they  brought  him 
to  the  Pharisees. 

Now  the  Pharisees,  as  we  have  read,  were 
not  good  men,  but  were   hypocrites,  that  is, 


112  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

persons  who  pretended  to  be  good,  while,  in 
their  hearts,  they  were  wicked.  And  they 
hated  Jesus  because  he  could  see  their  hearts; 
and  knew  of  their  wickedness. 

And  when  the  people  brought  the  man  who 
had  been  blind,  to  the  Pharisees,  they  asked 
him  how  he  had  been  made  well.  He  told 
them  that  Jesus  had  made  him  well.  Then 
the  Pharisees  began  to  find  fault  with  Jesus, 
and  because  he  had  cured  the  man  on  the 
Sabbath  day,  they  said  that  Jesus  had  worked  on 
that  clay,  and  disobeyed  God's  commandment. 

Then  the  Pharisees  went  to  the  father  and 
mother  of  the  man  who  had  been  blind,  and 
said  to  them,  Is  this  your  son  who,  you  say, 
was  born  blind  ?  How  is  it  then  that  he  can 
now  see  ? 

His  father  and  mother  answered,  We  know 
that  this  is  our  son,  and  that  he  was  born  blind; 
but  how  it  is  that  he  can  now  see,  we  know  not. 
He  is  old  enough  to  tell,  himself,  ask  him. 
His  parents  said  this  because  they  were  afraid 
the  Pharisees  would  be  angry  with  them,  and 
punish  them,  if  they  said  that  Jesus  had 
cured  their  son. 

Then  the  Pharisees  called  the  man  again, 
and   they   told    him   not  to  thank    Jesus  for 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  113 

making  him  well,  but  to  thank  God  for  it, 
because  they  knew  that  Jesus  was  a  sinner. 

The  man  answered  that  this  was  a  strange 
thing  for  them  to  say  about  Jesus;  for  if  he 
were  a  sinner,  God  would  not  have  helped  him 
to  make  him  well.  And  if  God  had  not  helped 
him,  Jesus  could  not  have  done  it ;  for  such  a 
miracle  was  never  heard  of  before,  as  to  cure 
a  person  who  had  been  born  blind,  and  make 
him  able  to  see. 

Then  the  Pharisees  were  very  angry  with 
the  man,  when  he  said  this;  and  they  forbade 
him  to  go  and  visit  his  friends,  or  to  come  with 
them  into  the  synagogue.  They  did  this  to 
punish  him. 

Jesus  heard  what  they  had  done  to  the  man. 
And  when  he  found  him,  he  said  to  him,  Dost 
thou  believe  in  the  Son  of  God?  The  man 
answered,  Who  is  he  Lord  that  I  may  believe 
in  him  ?  The  man  asked  this  because  he  did 
not  know  who  Jesus  was;  he  knew  only  that 
Jesus  had  cured  him  of  his  blindness. 

Then  Jesus  said  to  him,  It  is  the  Son  of  God 
who  is  speaking  to  thee.  When  Jesus  said 
this,  the  man  answered,  Lord,  I  believe.  And 
he  kneeled  down  and  worshipped  him. 

We  have  read  that  when  Jesus  was  in  the 

8 


114  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

town  of  Bethany,  a  woman  named  Martha 
asked  him  to  her  house.  And  Martha  had  a 
sister  named  Mary,  who,  when  Jesus  came,  sat 
down  by  his  feet  and  listened  to  the  things  that 
he  taught. 

Now  Martha  and  Mary  had  a  brother  named 
Lazarus.  And  after  Jesus  had  gone  away  from 
Bethany,  Lazarus  was  sick.  Therefore  his 
sisters  sent  word  to  Jesus,  to  tell  him  their 
brother  was  sick. 

Jesus  loved  Martha  and  Mary  and  Lazarus, 
yet  when  he  heard  their  message,  he  did  not 
go  to  them  at  once,  but  stayed  two  days  longer 
in  the  place  where  he  was.  Then  he  said 
to  his  disciples,  Let  us  go  to  Bethany  for 
our  friend  Lazarus  is  sleeping,  and  I  will  go 
and  waken  him  out  of  his  sleep.  Jesus  meant 
that  Lazarus  was  dead,  and  that  he  was  going 
to  raise  him  up  from  the  dead. 

So  Jesus  and  his  disciples  came  to  the  town 
of  Bethany.  And  Martha,  as  soon  as  she  heard 
he  had  come,  went  out  to  meet  him,  but  Mary 
sat  still  in  the  house.  Then  Martha,  when  she 
met  Jesus,  said  to  him,  Lord  if  thou  hadst  been 
here,  my  brother  would  not  have  died.  She 
meant  that  Jesus,  because  he  had  the  power 
of  God,  could  have  saved  Lazarus  from  dying. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  115 

Then  she  went  back  to  the  house  and  told 
Mary  that  Jesus  had  come.  And  Mary  rose 
up  quickly  and  went  out  to  meet  him ;  and  she 
was  weeping  for  sorrow  because  her  brother 
was  dead. 

When  Jesus  saw  her  weeping,  and  her  friends 
weeping  with  her,  he  was  troubled.  And  he, 
too,  wept.  And  the  people  who  were  there 
said,  See  how  he  loved  Lazarus.  Jesus  asked 
where  they  had  buried  him.  And  they  brought 
him  to  the  grave.  It  was  a  cave,  and  a  stone 
was  rolled  to  the  door  of  it.  Jesus  said,  Take 
away  the  stone. 

Now  the  Jews  when  they  buried  a  dead 
person,  wrapped  his  body  in  linen,  with  sweet 
smelling  spices,  and  fastened  a  napkin,  or  towel, 
about  his  head.  In  this  way  they  had  buried 
Lazarus. 

And  after  the  stone  was  taken  away  from 
the  mouth  of  the  cave,  Jesus  cried  out  with  a 
loud  voice,  Lazarus,  Come  forth  !  And  as  soon 
as  he  had  spoken  these  words,  Lazarus  came 
out,  alive,  with  his  hands  and  his  feet  bound  in 
grave  clothes,  and  his  face  tied  around  with  a 
napkin. 

And  Jesus  said  to  the  persons  who  were 
standing   by,  Unloose  him  and   let  him   go. 


116  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Then  many  of  the  people,  when  they  saw  this 
great  miracle  which  Jesus  did,  believed  in  him, 
that  he  was  the  Son  of  God. 

But  some  of  them  went  and  told  the  Phari- 
sees what  they  had  seen.  And  the  Pharisees 
were  not  pleased.  They  did  not  want  any  one 
to  believe  in  Jesus.  And  they  said  to  one 
another,  What  shall  we  do?  If  we  let  him 
alone,  all  the  people  will  believe  in  him.  And 
from  that  time  they  tried  to  find  out  some  way 
of  putting  him  to  death. 


THE   STOEY   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  117 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


JESUS  CURES  THE  SICK  WOMAN  IN  THE  SYNAGOGUE  ;  HE  SPEAKS 
THE  PARABLES  OF  THE  GREAT  SUPPER,  THE  PRODIGAL 
SON,  THE  RICH  MAN  AND  LAZARUS,  AND  THE  PHARISEE 
AND  THE   PUBLICAN. 


ON  the  Sabbath  day,  Jesus  went  into  the 
synagogue  and  taught  the  people  who 
were  there.  Among  them  was  a  woman  who 
had  been  sick  for  eighteen  years,  and  her  sick- 
ness had  bent  down  her  body  so  that  she  could 
not  straighten  herself,  or  lift  herself  up. 

When  Jesus  saw  her,  he  called  her  to  him, 
and  said,  Woman  thou  art  made  well  of  thy 
sickness.  Then  he  put  his  hands  on  her,  and 
immediately  she  lifted  herself  up  and  was 
made  straight.  As  soon  as  she  found  she 
could  do  this  she  was  so  glad,  that  she  spoke 
out  loud  and  thanked  God  because  she  was 
made  well. 

But  the  chief  man,  or  ruler,  of  the  syna- 
gogue, was  angry  because  Jesus  had  done  this 


118  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

miracle.  Like  the  Pharisees,  he  did  not  want 
the  people  to  believe  in  Jesus.  And,  because 
Jesus  had  cured  the  woman  on  the  Sabbath 
day,  the  ruler  said  he  had  worked  on  that 
day,  and  disobeyed  God. 

And  the  ruler  told  the  people  there  were  six 
days  in  the  week  when  it  was  right  to  work. 
If  any  of  them  were  sick,  he  said,  and  wanted 
to  be  made  well,  they  should  come  then,  and 
not  on  the  Sabbath  day. 

But  Jesus  asked  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue, 
and  the  other  Jews  who  found  fault  with  him, 
whether  they  did  not  go  on  the  Sabbath  day, 
and  untie  the  oxen  and  the  asses  in  the  stable, 
and  lead  them  out  to  drink.  And  if  it  were 
right  to  do  this  for  the  dumb  beasts,  and  to  be 
kind  to  them,  was  it  not  right,  Jesus  asked,  to 
make  this  poor  woman  well  on  the  Sabbath 
day. 

When  he  said  this,  the  men  who  had  found 
fault  with  him  were  ashamed,  but  the  rest  of 
the  people  were  glad  for  the  miracles  he  had 
done. 

On  another  day  Jesus  went  into  the  house 
where  one  of  the  Pharisees  lived.  And  while 
he  was  there  he  spoke  a  parable,  about  a  man 
who  made  a  great  supper. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  119 

When  the  food  had  been  put  on  the  table 
and  everything  was  ready,  the  man  sent  out 
his  servant  to  tell  the  persons  who  were  invited 
that  it  was  time  for  them  to  come.  But  they 
did  not  want  to  come  to  his  supper,  and  they 
all  began  to  make  some  excuse  for  staying 
away. 

The  first  one  said  he  had  bought  some  land 
and  must  go  and  see  it,  and  therefore  he  asked 
to  be  excused  from  coming.  Another  said  he 
had  bought  Q.ve  pairs  of  oxen,  and  that  he  was 
going  to  try  whether  they  worked  well,  and  he 
asked  if  he  might  not  be  excused.  Another 
said  he  had  just  been  married,  and  therefore 
he  could  not  come. 

And  the  servant  came  back  and  told  his 
master  what  the  men  said.  Then  his  master 
was  very  angry  at  the  men  who  were  not 
willing  to  come  to  the  supper,  which  he  had 
been  so  kind  as  to  make  ready  for  them. 

And  he  told  his  servant  to  go  out  into  the 
streets  and  lanes  of  the  city,  and  to  bring  in 
all  the  persons  he  should  meet.  He  told  him 
to  bring  in  even  those  who  were  poor,  and 
blind,  and  lame,  that  they  might  eat  of  his 
supper.  For  those  men  who  were  invited  first, 
he  said,  should  not  come  to  it  at  all. 


120  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

I  have  told  you  that  every  parable  Jesus 
spoke  means  something.  For  he  did  not  tell 
them  only  to  amuse  and  interest  us,  but  to 
make  us  understand  and  remember  better,  the 
things  that  he  wanted  us  to  learn. 

In  this  parable  the  master  who  gave  the 
supper  means  God.  The  good  things  that 
were  set  on  the  table  mean  the  good  news  of 
the  gospel,  which  tells  us  how  we  may  be  made 
God's  children,  and  have  our  sins  forgiven. 
The  men  who  were  first  invited,  and  would  not 
come,  mean  the  Jews,  because  they  had  the 
gospel  preached  to  them  first,  and  they  would 
not  believe  it. 

And  the  men  who  were  invited  afterward, 
mean  other  persons  who  have  heard  the  gospel 
since  that  time,  and  have  believed  and  obeyed 
it.  If  you  and  I  have  believed  the  good  news 
of  the  gospel,  and  have  taken  Jesus  for  our 
Saviour,  then  we  are  among  those  persons  who 
have  been  brought  into  the  supper. 

And  Jesus  told  the  people  who  came  to  listen 
to  his  teaching,  that,  if  they  wanted  to  be  his 
disciples,  they  must  take  up  their  cross  and 
follow  him.  He  meant  that  they  must  follow 
his  example  and  do  what  is  right,  no  matter 
how  hard  and  unpleasant  that  might  be. 


THE   STOEY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  121 

Very  often  it  is  easier  and  pleasanter  to  do 
the  thing  that  is  wrong,  than  the  thing  that  is 
right.  Then  if  we  do  the  thing  that  is  right, 
we  are  taking  up  the  cross. 

To  do  any  unpleasant  thing,  just  because 
it  is  right,  and  will  please  God,  is  taking  up 
our  cross.  And  Jesus  says  we  cannot  be  his 
disciples,  that  is,  his  children,  unless  we  are 
willing  to  do  this. 

And  there  came  to  Jesus  some  men  who 
before  that  time  had  been  wicked.  All  the 
people  knew  that  they  were  wicked  men.  And 
now  they  came  to  Jesus  for  him  to  teach  them. 
But  when  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  saw  them 
coming,  they  found  fault  with  Jesus  for  letting 
them  come,  and  they  said  that  he  made  friends 
of  men  who  were  sinners. 

But  Jesus  told  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  that 
he  would  not  send  these  men  away  because 
they  were  sinners;  he  would  rather  persuade 
them  to  come  to  him,  so  that  he  might  teach 
them  to  repent  of  their  sins.  For  he  said  that 
whenever  any  wicked  man  repented  of  his  sins 
and  began  to  obey  God,  even  the  angels,  that 
live  up  in  heaven,  rejoiced  at  it. 

Then  he  spoke  a  parable  about  a  man  who 
had  two  sons.     And  one  day  the  younger  son 


122  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

came  to  his  father,  and  asked  him  to  give  him 
his  share  of  the  money  that  his  father  had 
saved  up  for  his  children.  And  his  father 
gave  him  his  share. 

Not  many  days  after  this,  the  younger  son 
took  all  that  his  father  had  given  him,  and  he 
went  away  to  a  country  that  was  far  off,  and 
there  he  chose  wicked  persons  for  his  friends 
and  companions,  and  he  went  with  them  and 
wasted  his  money  in  sinful  pleasures,  and  in 
doing  wickedly. 

And  after  his  money  was  all  gone,  there 
came  a  great  famine  in  that  land.  It  is  a 
famine  in  any  place  when  the  corn  and  the 
wheat  do  not  grow  there,  so  that  the  people 
have  not  food  enough  to  eat. 

And  now  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land 
where  the  younger  son  had  gone,  and  he  had 
not  enough  money  to  buy  even  a  piece  of 
bread.  His  wicked  companions  had  left  him 
when  he  came  to  be  poor,  and  there  was  no 
one  to  give  him  help. 

So  he  went  and  hired  himself  to  work  for  a 
man  who  lived  in  that  country,  and  the  man 
sent  him  out  into  the  field  to  feed  his  swine. 
And  the  younger  son  was  so  hungry  that  he 
would   have  been  glad  to  get  as  much  as  he 


THE   STORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  123 

wanted,  even  of  the  coarse  food  that  the  swine 
ate,  but  the  man  did  not  give  it  to  him. 

And  after  he  had  suffered  for  many  days,  he 
said  to  himself,  In  my  father's  house  at  home, 
how  many  hired  servants  there  are  who  have 
plenty  to  eat,  and  more  than  they  want,  while 
I  stay  here  starving  with  hunger. 

I  will  leave  this  country  and  go  back  to  my 
father,  and  will  say  to  him,  Father,  I  have 
sinned  against  God  and  done  wickedly  to  thee, 
and  I  do  not  deserve  any  more  to  be  thy  son. 
If  I  may  only  come  back  to  thy  house,  I  am 
willing  to  be  treated  as  if  I  were  one  of  thy 
hired  servants. 

So  he  left  that  country  to  go  back  to  his 
father.  But  as  he  came  toward  the  house, 
while  he  was  yet  a  good  way  off,  his  father  saw 
him  coming.  And  as  soon  as  he  saw  him,  he 
did  not  wait  for  him  to  come  nearer ;  but  he 
ran  out  to  meet  him,  and  he  put  his  arms 
around  him,  and  kissed  him. 

Then  the  son  said  to  him,  Father,  I  have 
sinned  against  God  and  done  wickedly  to  thee, 
and  I  do  not  deserve  any  more  to  be  thy  son. 

But  when  he  had  said  this  much,  his  father 
was  so  glad  that  he  would  not  let  him  say  any 
more,  but  he  called  to  his  servants  to  bring 


124  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

out  new  clothes  to  put  on  him,  instead  of  the 
soiled  and  torn  ones  that  he  wore;  and  to  put 
a  ring  on  his  hand,  and  shoes  on  his  feet. 

And  go  get  the  fatted  calf,  the  father  said, 
and  kill  it,  and  let  us  have  a  feast  and  be 
happy ;  because  this  my  son  who  had  gone 
away  and  left  me,  has  come  back  again — he 
was  lost  and  is  found.  So  they  sat  down  to 
the  feast  and  were  happy  together. 

Now  the  older  son  was  out  in  the  field  at 
work.  And  when  it  was  time  for  him  to  come 
home,  as  he  came  near  the  house,  he  heard 
music  and  dancing  there.  And  he  called  one 
of  the  servants,  and  asked  what  these  things 
meant.  The  servant  answered,  Thy  brother 
has  come  and  thy  father  has  had  the  fatted 
calf  killed,  and  made  a  feast  for  him,  because 
he  is  so  glad  that  he  has  come  back  safe  and 
sound. 

Then  the  elder  brother,  instead  of  being 
pleased,  was  jealous  and  angry,  and  he  would 
not  come  into  the  house.  So  his  father  went 
out  and  begged  him  to  come  in. 

But  he  answered  his  father,  and  said,  For  a 
great  many  years  I  have  done  all  that  thou 
hast  told  me,  and  I  have  never  disobeyed  thy 
commandments,  yet  thou  didst  never  make  a 


THE   STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  125 

feast  for  me  and  my  friends.  But  as  soon  as 
this  thy  son  has  come,  who  has  wasted  thy 
money  in  doing  wickedly,  thou  hast  killed  for 
him  the  fatted  calf. 

Then  his  father  answered  him,  saying,  My 
son,  I  have  always  loved  thee,  and  everything 
I  have  is  the  same  as  if  it  were  thine.  Yet, 
although  thy  brother  did  wickedly,  it  is  right 
we  should  be  glad  and  rejoice.  For  he  had 
gone  away  and  left  us,  and  now  he  has  come 
back  again;  he  was  lost,  and  now  he  is  found. 

In  this  parable  the  father  means  God,  and 
the  son  who  went  away  and  left  him,  means 
wicked  men.  And  Jesus  meant,  in  this  jDara- 
ble,  to  teach  the  proud  Scribes  and  Pharisees, 
who  blamed  him  for  preaching  to  wicked  men, 
that  God  still  loves  those  men,  and  that  he  is 
willing  to  take  them  back  for  his  children 
again,  if  they  will  only  leave  off  their  sins  and 
love  and  obey  him. 

And  Jesus  spoke  another  parable.  It  was 
about  two  men.  One  of  them  was  rich,  and 
was  dressed  in  the  most  beautiful  clothes,  and 
ate  the  nicest  of  food,  every  day.  The  other 
was  a  beggar,  named  Lazarus,  who  was  sick, 
and  his  body  was  covered  with  sores. 

And  because  he  was  poor  and  had  nothing 


126  THE  8TORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

to  eat,  his  friends  brought  him,  and  laid  him 
down  by  the  rich  man's  gate,  that  he  might 
get  the  pieces  of  food  that  were  left  from  the 
rich  man's  table.  And  even  the  dogs  in  the 
street  seemed  to  pity  him,  for  they  came  and 
licked  his  sores. 

And  the  beggar  died,  and  tin;  angels  carried 
him  up  to  heaven.  He  was  not  poor  there,  and 
he  did  not  have  to  wait  for  the  pieces  of  food 
that  were  left  from  the  table.  He  sat  down  at 
the  table  himself  with  the  good  men  who  hud 
gone  to  heaven  before  him.  He  sat  next  to 
the  great  and  good  Abraham,  and  leaned  on 
Abraham's  bosom. 

And  after  awhile  the  rich  man  died  also, 
and  he  was  buried;  but  his  soul  went  to  the 
place  where  the  wicked  go.  The  Bible  tells  us 
that  in  that  place  a  fire  is  burning,  and  that 
the  wicked  are  cast  into  it. 

And  while  the  rich  man  was  there,  being 
punished  for  his  sins,  he  looked  up  and  saw 
Abraham  a  great  way  off  and  Lazarus  leaning 
on  his  bosom.  And  he  cried  out,  and  said, 
Father  Abraham,  have  pity  on  me,  and  send 
Lazarus  to  dip  his  finger  in  water,  and  then  let 
him  come  and  put  a  drop  of  it  on  my  tongue, 
to  cool  it,  for  I  am  burning  in  this  flame. 


THE  STORY   OF   Tin;   GOSPEL.  127 

But  Abraham  told  the  rich  man  to  remember 
that,  when  he  was  alive,  he  had  good  things, 
but  Lazarus  had  evil  tilings.  And  now,  Abra- 
ham said,  Lazarus  is  comforted  and  happy, 
but  thou  art  in  pain. 

And,  beside  this,  between  us  and  von  there 
is  a  wide,  deep  place  that  no  one  can  pass  over; 
so  that  persons  who  want  to  go  from  US  to  von 
cannot  go,  and  those  who  want  to  come  from 
you  to  us  cannot  come. 

Then  the  rich  man  said,  If  Lazarus  cannot 
come  to  me,  I  pray  thee  -end  him  to  my  father's 
house,  for  I  have  five  brothers  living  there,  that 
he  may  tell  tbem  to  repent  of  their  sin-  and 
obey  God,  bo  that,  when  they  die,  they,  may  not 
come  to  this  dreadful  place. 

Abraham  answered  the  rich  man,  and  said, 
Thy  brothers  have  the  Bible  to  read,  let 
them  learn  to  repent  from  it.  The  rich  man 
answered,  But  Father  Abraham,  if  some  one 
should  rise  up  from  the  dear!  and  Lro  and  tell 
them,  they  surely  would  repent 

Abraham  answered,  If  thy  brothers  will  not 
obey  what  God  says  to  them  in  the  Bible,  they 
will  not  obey  him  and  repent  of  their  sins,  even 
if  some  one  should  rise  up  from  the  dead  and 
go  and  speak  to  them. 


128  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

From  this  parable  we  learn  that  the  good 
are  happy  after  they  die,  but  the  wicked  are 
punished  for  their  sins.  We  learn,  too,  that 
it  is  far  better  to  serve  God  and  have  him  for 
our  Father,  even  though  we  be  poor  and  sick, 
than  it  is  to  have  all  the  riches  in  the  world, 
and  yet  not  be  one  of  his  children. 

And  Jesus  spoke  a  parable  to  those  persons 
who  thought  themselves  better  than  others. 
The  parable  was  about  two  men  who  went  up 
to  the  temple  to  pray.  One  of  them  was  a 
Pharisee,  and  the  other  was  a  Publican,  or 
tax-gatherer. 

The  Pharisee  chose  a  place  to.say  his  prayers 
where  other  people  could  see  him,  and  hear 
him,  saying  them.  And  this  is  what  he  said 
when  he  prayed,  Lord,  I  thank  thee  that  I  am 
not  wicked,  like  other  men,  and  that  I  am  not 
as  bad  as  this  Publican  whom  I  see  standing, 
afar  off,  over  there.  I  always  say  my  prayers, 
and  I  fast  twice  every  week,  and  I  give  a  part 
of  all  the  things  that  I  get  to  the  priests,  who 
stay  at  the  temple. 

This  is  what  the  Pharisee  said  when  he  was 
praying,  and  he  was  careful  to  say  it  so  that 
other  persons  might  hear  him,  because  he 
wanted  them  to  think  he  was  very  good. 


THE   STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  129 

But  the  Publican  when  he  prayed,  did  not 
want  other  persons  to  hear  him.  He  wanted 
God  only  to  hear  him.  So  he  went  to  a  place 
by  himself  and  there  heibowed  down  his  head, 
because  he  was  troubled,  and  he  said,  God 
forgive  me,  for  I  feel  that  I  am  a  sinner. 

Then  Jesus  told  the  people  who  were  lis- 
tening to  this  parable,  that  God  was  more 
pleased  with  the  Publican  than  he  was  with 
the  Pharisee;  because  the  Pharisee  was  proud 
and  thought  much  of  himself,  but  the  Publican 
was  sorry  for  his  sins,  and  confessed  them,  and 
asked  to  be  forgiven. 

And  some  of  thejDeople  brought  little  children 
to  Jesus,  for  him  to  put  his  hands  on  them, 
and  pray  for  them,  and  bless  them.  But  his 
disciples  thought  this  would  be  troublesome  to 
Jesus,  and  they  found  fault  with  the  persons  who 
brought  them,  and  wanted  to  send  them  away. 

But  Jesus  was  much  displeased  with  his 
disciples  for  this.  He  told  them  to  let  the 
little  children  come  to  him,  and  not  to  forbid 
them,  for  he  said  it  was  only  those  persons  who 
were  humble  and  loving,  like  little  children, 
that  should  come  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven. 
And  he  took  the  little  children  up  in  his  arms 
and  put  his  hands  on  them  and  blessed  them. 


130  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  as  Jesus  and  his  twelve  apostles  were 
going  uj3  to  Jerusalem,  he  took  them  to  a  place 
alone  and  told  them  what  would  happen  to  him 
when  he  came  there.  f  He  said  that  the  people 
would  mock  him,  and  scourge  him,  and  spit 
upon  him;  and  afterward  they  would  crucify 
him,  that  is,  they  would  kill  him  by  nailing 
him  to  the  cross. 

The  cross  was  made  of  two  large  j^ieces  of 
wood  fastened  together,  one  across  the  other. 
In  that  country  men  who  were  to  be  punished 
by  being  put  to  death,  were  nailed  to  this  cross, 
by  great  nails  driven  through  their  hands  and 
their  feet.  And  after  being  nailed  to  it,  they 
were  left  hanging  there  until  they  died.  And 
this  is  what  Jesus  said  would  be  done  to  him. 

We  have  read  how  he  came  down  to  this 
world  to  save  us  from  being  punished  for  our 
sins,  and  that  the  only  way  he  could  do  this 
was,  to  be  punished  in  our  place.  And  now 
he  was  going  to  be  punished  by  being  nailed 
to  the  cross.  And  he  knew  that  when  he  came 
to  Jerusalem  this  would  be  done  to  him.  Yet 
he  did  not  turn  back,  but  he  went  on,  because 
he  was  willing  to  die  for  us. 

And  on  the  way  to  Jerusalem  he  passed 
through    the    city  of  Jericho.     And  a  great 


THE    BTOBY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  131 

multitude  of  people  followed  him.  As  they 
were  passing  along,  a  poor  blind  man,  named 
Bartimeus,  sat  by  the  wayside,  begging.  When 
he  heard  the  noise  of  the  people,  he  asked 
what  it  meant. 

Now  Bartimeus  had  been  told  how  Jesus 
could  make  blind  persons  see.  So  as  soon  as 
he  knew  that  Jesus  was  there,  he  began  to  cry 
out  with  a  loud  voice,  saying,  Jesus  have 
mercy  on  me.  When  the  people  heard  him 
crying  out  they  told  him  to  be  still.  But,  he 
cried  a  great  deal  the  more,  Jesus,  have  mercy 
on  me. 

And  Jesus  stood  still  and  commanded  that 
he  should  be  brought  to  him.  When  the  blind 
man  heard  this,  he  rose  up  in  haste  to  go  to 
Jesus;  and  he  threw  away  his  outer  garment, 
or  coat,  so  that  he  might  get  to  him  the  sooner. 
And  Jesus  asked  him  what  it  was  that  he 
wanted.  He  said,  Lord,  that  thou  wouldst 
make  me  able  to  see. 

Then  Jesus  told  Bartimeus  that  because  he 
had  faith,  and  believed  that  Jesus  was  able  and 
willing  to  make  him  wrell,  he  should  be  made 
well.  And  at  once  he  was  able  to  see.  And 
he  followed  Jesus,  and  spoke  out  loud,  thank- 
ing God  for  what  had  been  done  to  him. 


132  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

JESUS  GOES  TO  THE  HOUSE  OF  ZACCHEUS.  HE  RIDES  INTO 
JERUSALEM;  CURSES  THE  BARREN  FIG-TREE;  SPEAKS 
THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  WICKED  HUSBANDMEN;  EX- 
PLAINS WHICH  IS  THE  PRINCIPAL  COMMANDMENT,  AND 
SPEAKS  OF  THE  WIDOW'S  MITE. 


THERE  was  living  in  the  city  of  Jericho  a 
man  named  Zaccheus.  He  was  the  chief 
one  among  the  Publicans,  or  tax-gatherers, 
and  he  was  rich. 

And  as  Jesus  passed  through  the  city, 
Zaccheus  tried  to  see  who  it  was,  but  he  could 
not,  for  the  crowd,  because  he  was  not  so  tall 
as  the  rest  of  the  people.  Therefore  he  ran 
on  before  and  climbed  up  into  a  sycamore  tree, 
because  Jesus  was  to  pass  by  that  way. 

When  Jesus  came  to  the  place  he  looked  up 
and  saw  Zaccheus,  and  he  said  to  him,  Zaccheus 
make  haste  and  come  down,  for  I  must  go  to 
thy  house  and  stay  there  to-day.  Then  Zac- 
cheus made  haste  and  came  down.     And  he 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  133 

went  with  Jesus  and  took  him  to  his  house 
joyfully. 

Now  Zaccheus,  as  I  have  told  you,  was  a 
Publican,  or  tax-gatherer.  He  was  one  of  the 
men  who  took  taxes,  or  tribute  money,  from 
the  Jews  to  send  it  to  the  emperor  of  Rome. 
For,  as  we  have  read,  the  Jews  had  to  give  a 
part  of  tiie  money  that  they  earned  to  the 
emperor,  because  they  were  his  servants. 

But  very  often  these  Publicans,  who  took 
the  tribute  money,  were  unjust  and  cruel  men. 
They  were  unjust  to  poor  persons,  taking  more 
from  them  then  it  was  right  to  take.  And  it 
is  very  likely  that  Zaccheus  did  this  before 
Jesus  came  to  his  house.  But  when  he  saw 
Jesus,  he  believed  that  God  had  sent  him,  and 
he  obeyed  what  Jesus  said. 

And  Zaccheus  stood  up  before  all  the  people 
who  were  there  and  told  Jesus  that  he  would 
be  unjust  no  more.  He  would  be  kind  to  the 
poor,  he  said,  and  would  give  them  half  of  all 
the  money  that  he  had.  And  if  he  found  he 
had  taken  anything  that  did  not  belong  to  him, 
he  would  give  back  four  times  as  much  to  the 
person  he  took  it  from. 

When  Jesus  saw  how  Zaccheus  repented  of 
his  sins,  and  believed  in  him,  Jesus  told  Zac- 
cheus that  all  his  sins  were  forgiven. 


134  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  if  we  want  to  be  forgiven  we  must 
believe  in  Jesus,  and  repent  of  our  sins,  as 
Zaccheus  did.  We  too  must  be  kind  to  per- 
sons who  are  poorer  than  we  are.  If  we  have 
no  money  to  give  them,  we  must  help  them  in 
any  way  that  we  can. 

And  if  we  have  ever  taken  anything  that 
did  not  belong  to  us,  we  must  give  back,  or 
pay  for,  the  thing  we  have  taken.  It  is  no 
matter  though  the  person  we  took  it  from  has 
never  missed  it,  and  knows  nothing  of  it. 
God  knows  it  and  we  cannot  expect  him  to 
forgive  us  while  we  are  disobeying  him,  by 
keeping  for  our  own  what  belongs  to  another. 

And  now  the  time  was  near  for  having  the 
feast  of  the  Passover.  For,  as  you  remember, 
God  had  told  the  Jews  they  must  have  this 
feast  once  every  year.  And  they  were  not 
allowed  to  have  it  in  any  other  city,  but  must 
come  to  Jerusalem  to  eat  of  it.  And  many 
of  the  Jews  had  come  there  at  this  time. 

And  they  went  up  to  the  temple,  and  while 
they  were  there,  they  talked  about  Jesus,  and 
said  to  each  other,  Do  you  think  he  will  come 
to  the  feast?  For  the  chief  priests  and  the 
Pharisees  had  told  all  the  people,  that  if  any 
of  them  knew  where  Jesus  was,  they  should 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  135 

tell  them,  because  they  wanted  to  take  him 
that  they  might  put  him  to  death. 

And  Jesus  came  to  the  village  of  Bethany 
where  Martha  and  Mary  lived,  with  their 
brother  Lazarus,  whom  Jesus  had  raised  from 
the  dead.  The  Jews  knew  that  Lazarus  was 
there,  and  many  of  them  came  to  Bethany, 
not  to  see  Jesus  only,  but  Lazarus  too. 

Then  the  chief  priests  talked  with  one 
another  about  some  way  of  putting  Lazarus, 
also,  to  death ;  because  many  of  the  Jews  after 
they  had  seen  him,  believed  on  Jesus  that  he 
was  the  Son  of  God. 

And  Jesus  left  the  village  of  Bethany  to  go 
to  Jerusalem,  which  was  not  far  off.  And 
when  he  came  to  the  mountain,  called  the 
Mount  of  Olives,  he  sent  two  of  his  disciples 
to  a  village  that  was  near.  He  told  them  that 
as  soon  as  they  came  into  the  village,  they 
would  find,  tied  there,  a  colt,  on  which  no  man 
had  ever  yet  ridden. 

And  Jesus  told  the  disciples  to  unloose  the 
colt  and  bring  it  to  him.  If  any  man  should 
ask  them  why  they  did  this,  they  were  to 
answer,  that  the  Lord  had  need  of  him. 
Then,  Jesus  said,  the  man  would  send  the  colt. 

And  the  disciples  did  as  Jesus  commanded 


136  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

them.  Thev  went  into  the  village  and  there 
they  found  the  colt  tied.  As  they  unloosed  it 
the  persons  who  owned  it,  asked  them,  Why 
do  you  unloose  the  colt  ?  And  they  answered, 
saying,  The  Lord  has  need  of  him.  Then 
they  let  them  take  the  colt,  and  they  brought 
it  to  Jesus. 

And  the  disciples  took  off  their  outer  gar- 
ments, or  coats,  and  put  them  on  the  back  of 
the  colt,  and  Jesus  sat  on  him.  And  as  he 
rode  toward  Jerusalem  a  great  multitude  of 
people  took  off  their  outer  garments,  and  spread 
them  on  the  ground,  for  him  to  ride  over  them. 
And  others  cut  down  branches  from  the  trees 
and  strewed  them  in  the  way. 

They  did  this  to  honor  Jesus,  for  so  they  used 
to  do  when  a  king  rode  through  their  streets. 
And  the  multitude  that  went  before  and  that 
followed  after  him,  cried  out  with  loud  voices, 
saying,  Blessed  is  he  that  has  come  to  us,  sent 
by  the  Lord. 

But,  although  the  Jews  did  these  things  to 
praise  and  honor  Jesus,  and  seemed  so  glad  to 
have  him  come  into  their  city,  he  knew  that 
they  did  not  love  him  in  their  hearts,  and  that 
in  a  few  days  they  would  be  crying  out  to 
crucify  him. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  137 

And  he  came  into  Jerusalem  and  went  up 
to  the  temple,  and  persons  who  were  lame  and 
blind  were  brought  to  him  there,  and  he  made 
them  well.  In  the  evening  he  went  again  to 
the  village  of  Bethany,  which  was  about  two 
miles  from  Jerusalem,  and  he  slept  at  Bethany. 

The  next  morning  as  he  came  back  to  Jeru- 
salem, he  was  hungry,  and  seeing  a  fig-tree  on 
the  way,  he  went  to  it  that  he  might  eat  some 
of  the  figs;  but  he  found  only  leaves  on  the 
tree.  When  he  saw  there  were  no  figs  on  it, 
he  spoke  to  the  tree,  and  said,  Let  no  more  fruit 
grow  on  thee  forever.  And  the  disciples  who 
were  with  him  heard  what  he  said. 

The  next  clay,  as  they  passed  by  the  tree, 
they  looked  at  it  and  saw  that  it  was  withered, 
and  dead,  all  the  way  up  from  the  roots.  Then 
they  remembered  the  words  which  Jesus  had 
spoken,  and  they  said,  How  soon  has  the  fig- 
tree  withered  away.  It  was  the  words  that 
Jesus  spoke  to  the  tree  that  made  it  wither  and 
die  ;  and  this  was  a  miracle. 

And  Jesus  spoke  a  parable  to  the  people 
about  a  man  who  planted  a  vineyard.  A  vine- 
yard is  a  large  garden,  or  field,  where  grape- 
vines grow.  This  man,  in  the  parable,  planted 
a  vineyard  and  set  a  fence  around  it,  and  made 


138  THE   STORY    OF    THE  GOSPEL. 

a  wine -press  in  it.  The  wine-press  is  the  place 
where  the  grapes  are  taken  when  they  are  ripe, 
to  have  the  juice  pressed  out  of  them,  to  make 
wine.  For  wine,  you  know,  is  made  out  of  the 
juice  of  grapes. 

After  the  man  had  made  the  fence  and  the 
wine-press,  he  built  a  strong  house,  or  tower, 
in  his  vineyard.  This  was  for  the  men  who 
should  stay  there  to  guard  it  from  robbers  and 
wild  beasts.  Whenever  there  was  danger  they 
could  go  into  the  tower  and  shut  to  the  door, 
and  be  safe. 

Now  the  owner  of  the  vineyard  did  not  want 
to  attend  to  his  vineyard  himself.  So,  when  it 
was  all  done,  he  let  it  out  to  some  husbandmen, 
that  is,  men  who  work  in  the  field. 

These  husbandmen  were  to  stay  in  the  vine- 
yard and  to  take  care  of  it,  and  attend  to  the 
vines.  And  when  the  grapes  should  get  ripe 
they  were  to  pick  them  and  give  some  of  them 
to  the  owner  of  the  vineyard,  for  letting  them 
have  the  use  of  his  vineyard;  the  rest  of  the 
grapes  they  were  to  keep  for  themselves. 

So,  after  the  husdandmen  had  gone  into  the 
vineyard  to  take  care  of  it,  the  owner  went 
away  to  a  far  country.  And  when  the  time 
came  for  the  grapes  to  be  ripe,  he  sent  his  ser- 


THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  139 

vant  to  get  his  share.  But,  instead  of  giving 
him  his  share,  as  they  had  promised  to  do,  the 
husbandmen  caught  the  servant  and  beat  him, 
and  sent  him  away  without  any. 

Then  the  owner  sent  another  servant,  but 
the  husbandmen  threw  stones  at  him,  and 
wounded  him  in  the  head,  and  sent  him  away 
cruelly  treated.  And  the  owner  sent  still  more 
of  his  servants,  and  some  of  these  they  beat 
and  some  they  put  to  death. 

Then  the  owner  of  the  vineyard  said,  What 
shall  I  do?  Now  he  had  one  son  whom  he 
loved  very  much.  And  he  said  to  himself, 
This  is  what  I  will  do.  I  will  send  my  beloved 
son,  for  they  will  be  afraid  to  harm  him. 

But  when  the  husbandmen  saw  his  son 
coming,  they  said  to  each  other,  This  is  the  son, 
who,  when  his  father  dies,  will  get  the  vine- 
yard. Come,  let  us  kill  him,  and  take  it  for 
our  own.  So  they  caught  him  and  took  him 
out  of  the  vineyard  and  killed  him. 

Then  Jesus  said  to  the  people  who  were 
listening  to  him,  What  will  the  owner  of  the 
vineyard  do  to  those  wicked  husbandmen  when 
he  comes  back  from  the  far  country,  and  goes 
into  his  vineyard  ?  And  the  people  said,  He 
will  destroy  those  wicked  men  and  let  out  his 


140  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

vineyard  to  others,  who  will  give  him  his  share 
of  the  fruit. 

In  this  parable  the  owner  of  the  vineyard 
meant  God,  and  the  wicked  husbandmen  meant 
the  Jews.  For  God  had  been  very  kind  to  the 
Jews.  They  were  slaves,  as  we  have  read,  in 
the  land  of  Egypt,  and  God  brought  them  up 
into  the  land  of  Israel  and  gave  it  to  them  for 
their  own  land.  But  when  they  came  there 
they  would  not  obey  him. 

Then  God  sent  good  men,  and  prophets,  to 
tell  them  to  repent  of  their  sins.  But  they 
would  not  listen  to  the  prophets.  Instead  of 
this  they  treated  them  cruelly  and  killed  them. 
And  now  God  had  sent  his  own  Son,  Jesus, 
and  they  were  going  to  kill  him,  too,  like  the 
wicked  husbandmen  in  the  parable. 

And  the  Pharisees  and  chief  men  among 
the  Jews  were  displeased  when  they  heard  this 
parable,  for  they  knew  that  the  wicked  hus- 
bandmen meant  them.  And  they  wanted  to 
take  Jesus  and  punish  him;  but  they  were 
afraid  of  the  people,  for  many  of  them  believed 
that  God  had  sent  him  to  teach  them. 

And  one  of  the  Pharisees  came  to  Jesus  and 
asked  him  which  was  the  principal  command- 
ment in  the  Bible.     The  Pharisee  knew  there 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  141 

were  many  commandments  in  the  Bible  which 
he  ought  to  obey,  but  he  wanted  to  know  which 
was  the  principal  one  of  them  all. 

Jesus  said  to  him,  This  is  the  first  and  prin- 
cipal commandment,  Thou  shall  love  the  Lord 
thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind. 

And  Jesus  did  not  mean  that  this  was  the 
principal  commandment  for  the  Pharisee  only, 
but  he  meant  that  it  was  for  you,  and  for  me 
and  every  one,  to  obey. 

It  means  that  we  are  to  love  God  as  much  as 
we  can  love,  and  more  than  we  love  anything 
else.  You  may  say,  How  can  I  love  God  so 
much  when  I  cannot  see  him?  I  know  you 
cannot  see  him,  but  you  do  not  always  have  to 
see  the  person  that  you  love,  and  that  you  feel 
thankful  to. 

Suppose  you  were  all  alone,  and  were  far 
away  from  your  home,  and  had  to  go  a  long 
way  to  reach  it.  Your  clothes  were  soiled  and 
torn,  your  shoes  were  worn  out,  and  you  were 
very  hungry,  yet  you  had  no  money  to  buy 
food  with.  And  you  lay  down  in  a  shady  place 
by  the  road  to  rest,  and  fell  asleep. 

And  suppose,  when  you  woke  up,  you  found 
at  your  side  new  clothes,  and  new  shoes,  and 


142  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

nice  food  to  eat,  that  some  one  had  left  for 
you.  Though  you  did  not  know  who  left  them, 
you  would  thank  him  for  being  so  kind. 

Or  suppose  on  some  dark,  stormy  night,  you 
got  lost,  and  because  you  did  not  know  the  way 
you  fell  into  a  deejD  river.  And  just  as  you 
were  sinking  under  the  water,  a  strong  man 
jumped  in  and  swam  to  you  and  held  you  up, 
and  brought  you  to  the  shore. 

You  could  not  see  him,  it  would  be  too  dark; 
and  he  might  go  away  in  the  dark,  so  that  you 
would  never  see  him.  Yet  you  would  love 
him  for  saving  your  life. 

Now  God  gives  you  your  clothes,  and  your 
food,  and  every  good  thing  that  you  have.  And 
he  has  sent  his  Son  to  save  you,  not  from 
drowning,  which  would  give  you  pain  for  only 
a  few  moments,  but  to  save  you  from  bearing 
punishment  and  pain  forever.  Ought  you  not 
to  love  him  for  these  things,  even  though  you 
cannot  see  him  ? 

We  shall  never  see  God  while  we  are  living; 
in  this  world,  yet  we  must  love  him,  or  we  can- 
not be  his  children. 

After  Jesus  had  told  the  Pharisee  about  the 
first  and  principal  commandment,  to  love  God, 
he  said  there  was  another  commandment  which 


THE    STOBY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  143 

came  next  to  this  one.  These  are  the  words 
of  it,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself. 

Our  neighbor  means  any  one.  All  the 
people  in  the  world  that  we  can  do  any  good 
to,  are  our  neighbors.  And  God  says  we  must 
love  them  as  we  love  ourselves.  This  means 
that  we  must  be  as  careful  to  do  what  is  kind 
and  just  to  them,  as  we  are  to  do  what  is  kind 
and  just  to  ourselves. 

And  Jesus  spoke  to  the  Scribes  and  Phari- 
sees and  called  them  hypocrites.  I  have  told 
you  that  a  hypocrite  is  a  person  who  pretends 
to  be  good  while,  in  his  heart,  he  is  wicked. 

These  Scribes  and  Pharisees  used  to  go  into 
the  synagogues  on  the  Sabbath  days,  and  sit 
in  the  first  seats,  where  every  one  could  see 
them,  and  they  said  their  prayers  out  loud,  so 
that  every  one  could  hear  them.  But  on  other 
days  they  were  unjust  and  wicked,  taking  for 
their  own  things  that  did  not  belong  to  them. 
This  is  the  reason  why  Jesus  called  them 
hypocrites. 

It  does  us  no  good  to  go  to  church  and  pray, 
if  we  come  away  from  church  to  do  wickedly. 
God  sees  us  not  only  in  church  and  Sunday- 
school,  but  all  the  time.  And  Jesus  told  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  that  because  they  pre- 


144  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

tended  to  serve  God,  while  they  were  really 
disobeying  him,  God  would  punish  them  the 
more  at  the  Judgment  Day. 

In  the  court,  or  yard,  of  the  temple  in  Jeru- 
salem, there  stood  some  chests,  or  boxes,  which 
had  openings  in  the  top.  These  boxes  were 
put  there  for  the  people  to  drop  money  in. 
This  money  the  priests  took,  to  buy  such  things 
as  were  needed  at  the  temple.  Therefore  it 
was  the  same  as  if  the  money  were  given  to 
God,  because  the  things  it  bought  were  used  in 
worshipping  him. 

And  one  day  Jesus  was  sitting  near  to  the 
place  where  these  boxes  stood,  and  he  saw  the 
jDeople  coming  and  dropping  their  money  into 
them.  And  many  persons,  who  were  rich,  put 
in  a  great  deal. 

But  a  poor  woman  who  was  a  widow,  whose 
husband  was  dead,  and  who  had  not  any  body 
to  work  and  earn  money  for  her,  came  and 
dropped  in  two  very  small  pieces  of  money, 
called  mites,  which  were  worth  verv  little.  The 
two  together  were  worth  less  than  a  penny.  But 
these  were  all  that  she  had,  and  Jesus  knew 
they  were  all. 

And  he  called  his  disciples  to  him  and  told 
them,  that  these  two  mites,  which  the  poor 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  145 

widow  dropped  into  the  chest,  seemed  more  to 
God,  that  is,  God  thought  more  of  them,  than 
he  did  of  all  that  the  rich  men  had  given. 

For  the  rich  men,  he  said,  even  after  they 
had  given  so  much,  had  a  great  deal  still  left 
for  themselves.  But  this  poor  widow  had 
nothing  left  for  herself,  because  she  gave  all 
that  she  had,  and  did  not  save  enough  even  to 
buy  herself  bread  with. 

From  this  we  learn  that  God  thinks  more 
of  a  little  that  we  give  to  him,  when  it  is  hard 
for  us  to  part  with  it,  than  he  does  of  a  great 
deal  when  we  have  so  much  that  we  do  not 
miss  it.'  For  the  harder  it  is  to  give  anything, 
or  to  do  anything,  for  him,  the  more  it  shows 
that  we  love  him.  And  that  is  what  God 
wants  us  to  do  most  of  all,  to  love  him. 

Xow,  although  Jesus  had  so  often  preached 
to  the  Jews  and  had  done  so  many  miracles 
for  them  to  see,  on  purpose  that  they  might 
believe,  and  know,  he  was  the  Son  of  God,  yet 
they  would  not  believe  this,  because  their  hearts 
were  wicked. 

Our  heart,  as  I  have  told  you,  is  that  part 
of  us  which  makes  us  want  to  do  right,  or 
wrong;  and  it  is  that  part  of  us  which  loves 
and  hates  persons. 

10 


146 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


If  we  have  new  and  good  hearts,  we  will  love 
Jesus,  and  want  to  do  all  that  he  tells  us  to  do. 
But  the  Jews  had  wicked  hearts,  and  because 
Jesus  told  them  of  their  sins  they  hated  him 
and  were  not  willing  to  believe  in  him,  or  to 
take  him  for  their  Saviour. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  147 


CHAPTER  X. 


JESUS  SPEAKS  THE  PARABLE  OF  THE  TEN  VIRGINS,  AND  TELLS 
WHAT  WILL  HAPPEN  ON  THE  JUDGMENT  DAY.  MARY 
ANOINTS  HIS  HEAD.  HE  EATS  THE  FEAST  OF  THE 
PASSOVER   WITH   HIS   APOSTLES. 


JESUS  told  his  disciples  to  be  always  ready 
for  the  Judgment  Day,  because  they  could 
not  tell  how  soon  that  day  might  come.  Then 
he  spoke  a  parable  to  them  about  ten  virgins, 
or  young  women,  that  went  out  to  meet  a  man 
who  had  just  been  married,  and  who  was 
bringing  his  wife  to  his  home. 

For  in  that  country,  when  a  man  was  married, 
he  brought  his  wife  home  to  his  house  in  the 
night,  and  some  of  his  friends,  each  one  of 
them  carrying  a  lamp,  or  torch,  used  to  go  out 
to  meet  him. 

And  these  ten  virgins  in  the  parable  had 
made  ready  to  go  out  and  meet  the  bridegroom, 
that  is,  the  man  who  had  been  married.  They 
had  lighted  their  lamps  and  were  all  ready,  but 


148  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

because  the  bridegroom  stayed  longer  than  they 
expected,  they  sat  down  to  wait  till  he  should 
come.     And  they  all  fell  asleep. 

Now,  five  of  the  virgins  were  wise  and 
brought  some  more  oil  with  them,  beside  the 
oil  that  was  in  their  lamps.  They  did  this  so 
that  if  their  lamps  should  go  out,  they  would 
have  enough  oil  to  fill  them  again.  But  the 
other  five  virgins  were  foolish,  and  brought  no 
oil  except  what  was  in  their  lamps. 

So,  as  we  have  just  read,  they  all  fell  asleep 
while  they  were  waiting  for  the  bridegroom. 
And  in  the  middle  of  the  night  the  people 
who  were  watching,  saw  him  coming,  and  they 
cried  out,  The  bridegroom  is  coming,  go  you 
out  to  meet  him. 

Then  all  the  virgins  rose  up  in  haste,  but 
they  found  that  while  they  were  asleep,  their 
lamps  had  burned  up  the  oil  that  was  in  them, 
and  gone  out.  Then  the  foolish  virgins,  who 
had  no  more  oil,  came  to  the  wise  virgins,  and 
said,  Give  us  some  of  your  oil  for  our  lamps 
have  gone  out.  But  the  wise  virgins  answered 
them,  saying,  We  have  not  enough  for  our- 
selves and  you,  too;  therefore  go  you  to  the 
persons  who  have  oil  to  sell,  and  buy  more  for 
yourselves. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  149 

So  the  foolish  virgins  went  to  buy  some  more 
oil.  And  while  they  were  gone  the  bridegroom 
came.  Then  the  wise  virgins,  who  were  ready 
and  had  their  lamps  burning;  went  with  him 
into  his  house  and  sat  down  to  the  marriage 
feast. 

And  after  awhile  the  foolish  virgins  came. 
But  now  it  was  too  late,  the  door  had  been  shut, 
and  though  they  stood  calling  outside,  they 
were  not  allowed  to  come  in. 

In  this  parable  the  bridegroom,  coming  in 
the  night,  means  Jesus  coming  at  the  Judgment 
Day.  The  wise  virgins  mean  those  persons  who 
have  loved  and  obeved  him,  and  who  will  be 
ready  to  meet  him  when  he  comes.  Jesus  will 
take  them  with  him  up  into  heaven. 

But  the  foolish  virgins  mean  those  persons 
who  have  not  loved  and  obeyed  Jesus,  and  who 
will  not  be  ready  to  meet  him  at  the  Judgment 
Day.  They,  too,  will  want  to  be  taken  up  into 
heaven,  and  they  will  see  others  taken  up,  but 
they,  themselves,  will  never  be  allowed  to  go 
in  there. 

And  Jesus  told  his  disciples  what  would 
happen  on  the  Judgment  Day.  On  that  day, 
he  said,  he  will  come  down  to  this  world  again, 
and  all  the  holy  angels  will  be  with  him. 


150  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  he  will  sit  on  his  throne,  and  all  the 
people  who  are  dead,  will  rise  up  and  stand 
before  him,  for  him  to  judge  them,  that  is, 
for  him  to  decide  whether  they  shall  be  re- 
warded, or  punished.  The  people  that  have 
been  drowned  in  the  sea,  and  those  that  have 
been  buried  in  the  ground,  will  all  rise  up  and 
be  there. 

And  then  he  will  separate  them  into  two 
great  companies.  One  company  will  stand  on 
his  right  hand;  they  will  be  the  good.  The 
other  company  will  stand  on  his  left  hand; 
they  will  be  the  wicked. 

Then  Jesus  will  speak  kindly  to  those  on  his 
right  hand  and  call  them  God's  children.  And 
he  will  tell  them  to  come  with  him  to  the 
happy  place,  that  God  made  ready  for  them 
when  he  first  made  the  world. 

Afterward  he  will  speak  to  the  wicked  on 
his  left  hand,  but  he  will  tell  them  to  go  from 
him  into  that  dreadful  place  that  was  made 
for  Satan  and  his  evil  spirits. 

Then  the  wicked  will  go  into  that  place, 
that  is,  into  hell,  to  be  punished  always.  But 
the  good  will  go  up  to  heaven  to  be  happy 
forever. 

After  Jesus  had  told  his  disciples  about  these 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  151 

tilings,  he  said,  that  in  two  days  would  be  the 
feast  of  the  Passover,  and  then  he  would  be 
betrayed  to  be  crucified.  We  betray  a  person, 
when  we  turn  against  him,  and  go  and  tell  his 
enemies  where  to  find  him,  so  that  they  can 
take  him  and  do  him  some  harm. 

This  is  what  Jesus  meant  would  be  done  to 
him.  He  meant  that  while  he  was  at  Jeru- 
salem, keeping  the  feast  of  the  Passover,  some 
one  would  turn  against  him  and  give  him  to 
his  enemies,  so  that  they  could  take  him  and 
nail  him  to  the  cross,  and  crucify  him.  Jesus 
knew  who  would  do  this.  It  was  Judas  Iscariot, 
one  of  the  twelve  apostles. 

Now  in  the  land  of  Israel  the  people  used 
to  put  oil,  or  ointment,  on  their  heads,  and  on 
their  beards,  and  sometimes  they  put  it  over 
their  whole  bodies.  This  was  called  anointing. 
They  did  it  because  the  ointment  made  their 
skin  soft  and  smooth,  and  because  it  had  a 
sweet  and  pleasant  smell.  They  thought,  too, 
that  it  kept  away  sickness. 

Sometimes  when  a  person  went  to  visit  a 
friend,  while  he  sat  in  his  house,  his  friend 
would  come  to  him  and  put  ointment  on  his 
head,  and  anoint  it.  And  this  was  thought 
to  be  very  kind. 


152  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  Jesus  came  to  Bethany,  the  town  where 
Mary  and  Martha  lived.  It  was  their  brother 
Lazarus  whom  he  had  raised  from  the  dead. 
And  they  made  a  supper  for  Jesus  at  Bethany. 
Martha  waited  on  him,  but  Lazarus  was  one  of 
those  who  ate  at  the  table. 

And  while  Jesus  was  at  the  table,  Mary 
brought  a  jDOund  of  very  precious  ointment, 
called  spikenard.  It  was  in  a  box  made  of 
alabaster,  or  marble.  And  she  came  to  Jesus 
while  he  was  at  the  table,  and  broke  the  box, 
and  poured  the  precious  ointment  on  his  head. 
And  the  house  was  filled  with  the  sweet  smell 
of  the  ointment. 

Mary  did  this  to  show  how  much  she  loved 
Jesus  for  coming  down  from  heaven  to  be  her 
Saviour.  But  Judas,  the  wicked  apostle,  who 
was  going  to  betray  him,  found  fault  with  her, 
and  said,  Why  was  not  this  ointment  sold 
for  three  hundred  pence,  and  the  money  given 
away  to  persons  who  are  poor? 

He  said  this  not  because  he  really  cared  for 
the  poor,  but  because  he  was  the  one  who 
carried  the  bag  that  the  money  was  kept  in, 
and  he  was  a  thief,  and  wanted  the  three 
hundred  pence  put  into  the  bag,  so  that  he 
could  take  them  for  his  own. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  153 

But  Jesus  told  Judas  not  to  find  fault  with 
Mary ;  for  .what  she  had  done  to  him  was  good 
and  kind.  And  he  said,  that  wherever  his 
disciples  went,  over  the  whole  world,  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  the  people,  they  would  tell  them 
of  Mary's  kind  act,  that  it  might  be  remem- 
bered of  her. 

I  have  told  you  about  the  priests  who  stayed 
at  the  temple  in  Jerusalem,  attending  to  God's 
worship  there.  Now  some  of  these  priests 
were  called  chief  priests,  because  they  were 
the  chief,  or  principal  ones.  And  yet,  although 
they  were  the  chief  ones  among  the  priests, 
they  were  not  good  men.  And  when  they 
heard  Jesus  teaching  the  people  to  do  right 
and  obey  God,  they  hated  him. 

And  now  Judas  went  to  the  chief  priests 
and  asked  them  how  much  money  they  would 
give  him,  if  he  would  betray  Jesus  to  them, 
that  is,  if  he  would,  some  time,  bring  them  to 
the  place  where  Jesus  was,  so  that  they  could 
take  him  and  put  him  to  death. 

And  the  chief  priests  said  they  would  give 
Judas  thirty  pieces  of  silver.  And  from  that 
time  Judas  watched  Jesus,  to  find  him  alone, 
so  that  he  could  bring  the  chief  priests  to  the 
place,  and  betray  him  to  them. 


154  THE    STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  now  the  day  had  come  when  the  Jews 
made  ready  for  the  feast  of  the  Passover. 
Every  man  killed  a  lamb  to  eat  at  this  feast, 
and  it  was  roasted  with  fire,  and  the  man  and 
his  family  ate  of  it  in  the  night;  for,  as  we 
have  read,  the  feast  of  the  Passover  was  eaten 
in  the  night. 

And  Jesus  and  his  apostles  were  going  to 
eat  this  feast  together.  And  the  apostles  came 
to  him  and  asked  him  where  they  should  make 
it  ready.  He  told  them  to  go  into  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  and  they  would  meet  a  man  carry- 
ing a  pitcher  of  water.  And  they  should 
follow  him  into  the  house  where  he  was  going. 

There,  Jesus  said,  they  would  see  the  man 
who  was  the  owner  of  the  house :  and  they 
were  to  say  to  him,  The  Master  wants  thee  to 
show  us  the  chamber,  where  he  shall  come  to 
eat  the  feast  of  the  Passover  with  his  apostles. 
Then,  Jesus  said,  the  man  would  show  them  a 
large  room,  up  stairs,  that  was  ready  furnished ; 
and  in  that  room  they  should  make  ready  the 
feast. 

And  the  apostles  did  as  Jesus  commanded. 
They  went  into  Jerusalem  and  met  the  man 
carrying  a  pitcher  of  water.  And  they  fol- 
lowed him  to  the  house  where  he  was  going, 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  155 

and  the  owner  of  the  house,  showed  them  a  large 
upper  room,  as  Jesus  had  said  that  he  would, 
and  the  apostles  made  the  feast  ready  there. 

And  in  the  evening  Jesus  came  with  the 
twelve  apostles  and  sat  down  with  them  at  the 
table.  Then  he  told  them  it  was  the  last  time 
he  would  eat  the  feast  with  them.  He  said 
this  because  he  knew  he  was  soon  to  die. 

But  the  apostles  did  not  think  he  was  going 
to  die.  They  thought,  because  he  was  the  Son 
of  God,  he  was  soon  going  to  be  very  great, 
and  to  sit  on  a  throne  and  be  a  king.  And 
then,  they  thought,  that  they  would  be  great  too. 

And  they  began  to  dispute  with  one  another 
about  which  of  them  should  be  greatest.  But 
Jesus  told  them  that  the  one  who  would  be  the 
greatest  in  his  kingdom,  would  be  the  one  who 
was  the  most  humble,  and  willing  to  wait  on 
the  rest. 

Then  he  rose  up  from  the  table  and  took  a 
towel,  and  fastened  it  around  him.  After  that, 
he  poured  some  water  into  a  basin,  and  he  went 
from  one  aj)Ostle  to  another,  washing  their  feet 
and  wiping  them  with  the  towel  he  had  taken. 

Now,  in  that  country,  no  one  but  the  lowest 
servant,  or  slave,  used  to  do  this.  But  Jesus 
did  it  to  the  apostles  to  set  them  an  example 


156  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

of  being  humble  and  willing  to  serve  one 
another. 

So  after  he  had  washed  their  feet,  he  came 
and  sat  down  at  the  table  again.  Then  he  told 
the  apostles  that  they  should  be  willing  to  do 
to  one  another  as  he  had  done  to  them. 

And,  as  they  were  eating  together,  he  said  to 
them,  Truly,  I  tell  you,  that  one  of  you  is  going 
to  betray  me.  But  when  the  apostles  heard 
Jesus  say  this,  they  were  much  surprised  and 
very  sorry ;  and  they  looked  at  each  other  and 
wondered  whom  he  could  mean. 

Now  one  of  the  apostles  whom  Jesus  loved 
very  much,  was  leaning  on  his  bosom.  And 
this  apostle  spoke  to  Jesus,  and  asked  him, 
which  one  of  them  he  meant.  Then  Jesus 
said  it  was  the  one  he  would  give  a  piece  of 
bread  to,  after  he  had  dipped  it  in  the  dish. 
And  when  he  had  dipped  the  bread,  he  gave 
it  to  Judas  Iscariot. 

Then  Judas  rose  up  from  the  table,  and  went 
out  of  the  house  where  Jesus  and  the  apostles 
were.  And  it  was  night.  When  he  was  gone, 
Jesus  said  to  the  apostles,  I  will  be  with  you 
only  a  little  while. 

Then  he  told  them  that  he  would  give  them 
a  new  commandment.     It  was  this:  That  they 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  157 

should  love  one  another.  As  he  had  loved 
them,  he  said,  so  they  should  love  one  another. 
And  in  this  way  all  the  people  would  know 
that  they  were  his  disciples,  if  they  had  love 
one  for  another. 

And  Jesus  told  the  apostles  they  would  all 
be  tempted  to  go  away  and  leave  him  that 
night.  He  said  this  because  Judas  was  coming 
with  a  band  of  men  to  take  him,  and  the  apos- 
tles would  be  afraid  when  they  saw  these  men. 
Jesus  knew  they  were  coming,  for  he  knows  all 
things,  but  the  apostles  did  not  know  it. 

And  when  Jesus  told  them  they  would  be 
tempted  to  leave  him,  they  could  not  believe 
it.  And  Peter  answered  that  he  would  never 
leave  Jesus.  Though  all  the  rest  shall  leave 
thee,  he  said,  I  never  will;  for  I  am  ready  to 
go  to  prison  with  thee,  and  to  be  put  to  death 
with  thee. 

But  when  Peter  said  this,  Jesus  told  him 
that  on  that  very  night,  before  the  cock  should 
crow  twice,  Peter  would  say  three  times  that  he 
did  not  know  him. 

You  have  seen,  sometimes,  as  it  grows  dark, 
how  the  chickens  fly  up  to  the  branch  of  a 
tree,  or  to  some  other  place  high  above  the 
ground,  where  they  think  they  will   be  safe 


158  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

from  harm.  And  there  they  stay  together  all 
night. 

And  sometimes,  in  the  middle  of  the  night, 
the  cock  stands  up  on  the  branch,  and  crows 
out  loud.  And  very  early  in  the  morning, 
when  the  light  first  begins  to  show  a  little  in 
the  sky,  he  crows  again.  He  crows  several 
times  as  he  sits  up  there  on  his  perch. 

And  when  Peter  said  he  would  never  leave 
Jesus,  Jesus  told  him  that  on  that  very  night, 
before  the  cock  should  crow  twice,  Peter  wTould 
not  only  go  away  and  leave  him,  but  he  would 
say,  three  times,  that  he  did  not  even  know  him. 

When  Jesus  told  him  this  Peter  was  more 
astonished  than  ever,  and  he  said,  again,  that 
he  would  never  leave  him ;  and  so  all  the 
aj)ostles  said. 

And  while  they  were  at  the  table,  eating  the 
feast  of  the  Passover,  Jesus  took  some  bread  in 
his  hands,  and  after  he  had  thanked  God  for  it, 
he  broke  it  in  pieces,  and  gave  the  pieces  to  the 
apostles.  And  he  said  to  them,  Take  it  and  eat 
it,  for  this  is  my  body  which  is  broken  for  you. 

He  meant  that  the  bread  was  like  his  body, 
and  that  it  meant  his  body,  because  his  body 
was  very  soon  to  be  broken  and  wounded  on 
the  cross  for  them,  and  for  us  all. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  159 

And  after  he  had  given  them  the  bread,  he 
took  some  wine  in  a  cup,  and  when  he  had 
thanked  God  for  it,  he  handed  it  to  the  apostles 
and  told  them  to  drink  of  it.  And  he  said, 
This  wine  is  my  blood  which  is  shed  (or  poured 
out)  for  the  forgiveness  of  sins. 

He  meant  that  the  wine  was  like  his  blood, 
and  that  it  meant  his  blood,  because  his  blood 
was  very  soon  to  be  poured  out  from  the 
wounds  in  his  hands  and  his  feet,  while  he  was 
being;  nailed  to  the  cross. 

And  the  reason  he  would  be  nailed  there 
was,  so  that  the  apostles,  and  all  the  people 
in  the  world,  might  be  forgiven  their  sins. 

And  he  told  the  apostles  that  after  he  was 
dead,  they  should  meet  together,  and  eat  of  the 
bread,  and  drink  of  the  wine,  in  the  same  way 
that  he  had  shown  them;  and  whenever  they 
did  it,  he  said,  they  should  remember  him. 

This  is  the  Communion,  the  Lord's  Supper, 
that  we  have  in  church  now.  It  was  Jesus 
who  told  us  to  have  it.  Whenever  we  see  the 
broken  bread  in  that  supper,  it  means  his  body, 
wounded  and  nailed  to  the  cross.  And  when- 
ever we  see  the  wine,  it  means  his  blood  poured 
out  of  the  wounds  in  his  hands  and  his  feet. 

The    persons  who   love    him  will    keep    on 


160  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

having  this  supper,  till  he  comes  to  the  earth 
again.  Every  time  they  eat  of  it  they  think 
of  the  sins  they  have  done,  and  that  he  was 
punished  for ;  and  they  repent  of  those  sins, 
and  determine  to  do  them  no  more. 

And,  as  they  sat  at  the  table,  Jesus  talked 
with  the  apostles.  He  told  them  not  to  be 
troubled  because  he  was  to  be  taken  away  from 
them.  He  was  going  to  his  Father,  he  said,  to 
make  a  place  ready  for  them  in  his  Father's 
house :  he  meant  in  heaven. 

For  no  one  could  come  to  his  Father,  lie 
said,  that  is,  to  God,  unless  Jesus  should  bring 
him.  And  he  promised  the  apostles  that  after 
he  had  made  a  place  ready  for  them  in  heaven, 
he  would  come  back  and  take  them,  so  that 
where  he  was  they  might  be.  Jesus  meant 
that  he  would  come  back  and  take  them  at  the 
Judgment  Day. 

And  he  told  them  to  obey  the  command- 
ments he  had  given  them,  for  that  was  the 
way  to  show  that  they  loved  him.  And  if  they 
loved  him,  he  said,  his  Father  would  love  them. 

And  he  promised  the  apostles  that  after  lie 
was  gone  from  them,  his  Father  would  send 
the  Holy  Spirit  into  their  hearts.  And  the 
Holy  Spirit,  Jesus  said,  would  make  them  re- 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  161 

member  everything  he  had  taught  them,  and 
would  teach  them,  also,  the  things  that  they 
were  to  teach  others. 

And  now,  Jesus  said,  the  apostles  had  sorrow, 
because  he  was  to  be  taken  from  them,  and  put 
to  death.  But  he  would  rise  up  from  the  dead, 
and  they  should  see  him  again,  and  then  their 
sorrow  should  be  turned  into  joy. 

And  he  told  them  that,  whenever  they  prayed 
to  God  for  anything,  they  should  ask  God  to 
give  it  to  them  for  Jesus'  sake. 

We  ask  to  have  a  thing  given  us  for  another 
person's  sake,  when  he  deserves  to  have  it  and 
we  do  not.  We,  ourselves,  do  not  deserve  to 
have  anything  from  God,  because  we  have 
sinned  against  him.  Therefore  we  cannot  ask 
him  to  give  us  anything  for  our  own  sake. 

But  if  we  ask  it  for  Jesus'  sake,  God  will 
give  it  to  us,  because  Jesus  has  never  sinned 
against  God,  and  yet  he  has  borne  the  punish- 
ment for  our  sins. 

And  after  Jesus  had  talked  with  the  apostles, 
he  lifted  up  his  eyes  toward  heaven  and  prayed 
for  them.  And  not  only  for  them,  but  for  all 
the  men,  and  women,  and  little  children,  who 
should  believe  on  him  from  hearing  the  words 

that  the  apostles  preached. 

11 


162 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


You  and  I  can  never  hear  the  apostles 
preach,  for  they  are  dead.  But  we  can  read 
the  words  that  they  preached  about  Jesus,  in 
the  Bible,  for  those  words  are  written  down 
there.  And  if  we  learn  to  believe  on  Jesus, 
and  love  him,  from  reading  those  words,  then 
we  are  among  the  persons  that  he  prayed  to 
his  Father  for. 

He  prayed  that  his  Father  would  keep  them 
from  doing  evil,  and  would  make  them  to  be 
holv,  and  to  love  one  another.  And  he  told 
his  Father  that  he  wanted  them  to  come  up  to 
heaven  and  be  with  him. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  163 


CHAPTEK  XL 

JESUS  AND  HIS  APOSTLES  GO  TO  THE  GARDEN  OF  GETHSEMANE; 
HE  IS  BETRAYED;  THE  APOSTLES  FLEE  AWAY;  HE  IS 
MOCKED  AND  CROWNED  WITH  THORNS;  HE  IS  CRUCI- 
FIED. 


A  FTER  he  had  prayed  for  these  tilings,  Jesus 
-^-  and  his  apostles  sang  a  hymn  together. 
Then  they  went  out  from  the  house  where  they 
had  eaten  the  Passover,  to  the  mountain  called 
the  Mount  of  Olives,  which  was  not  far  from 
Jerusalem. 

And  they  came  into  a  garden  that  was 
there,  called  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane. 
And  Jesus  went  a  little  way  from  the  apostles, 
to  a  place  by  himself,  and  kneeled  down  on 
the  ground  and  prayed. 

And  the  Bible  says  that  while  he  prayed  he 
was  in  an  agony.  This  means  that  he  was  in 
great  suffering,  and  distress.  Why  did  Jesus 
have  to  bear  this  suffering?  It  was  because 
he  was  being  punished  for  our  sins. 


164  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

For  sin  is  a  dreadful  thing.  God  is  angry 
at  it  and  always  punishes  it.  And  we  had 
sinned,  and  were  to  be  punished  for  it,  but 
Jesus  asked  God  to  let  him  be  punished  in 
our  place,  because  he  loved  us,  and  wanted  to 
save  us  from  punishment. 

And  after  he  had  prayed  to  his  Father,  he 
rose  up  from  the  ground  and  went  back  to  his 
apostles,  but  he  found  they  had  fallen  asleep. 
Then  he  said  to  them,  Why  do  you  sleep?  Rise 
up  and  pray,  for  fear  you  may  be  tempted  to  do 
wrong.  For  Jesus  knew  how  soon  they  would 
be  tempted  to  go  away  and  leave  him  alone. 

And  he  went  away  and  prayed  again,  but 
afterward  he  came  back  to  them,  and  said, 
Let  us  go,  for  the  one  who  will  betray  me  is 
coming  near. 

We  have  read  that  Judas,  the  wicked 
apostle,  had  gone  to  the  chief  priests,  and 
asked  them  how  much  money  they  would 
give  him  if  he  brought  them  to  the  place 
where  Jesus  was ;  and  they  promised  to  give 
him  thirty  pieces  of  silver. 

Ever  since  they  promised  him  this,  Judas 
had  been  watching  for  a  time  when  he  could 
betray  Jesus  to  them.  And  now  Judas  knew 
that  Jesus  had  gone  into  the  garden.     And 


THE   STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  165 

because  it  was  night,  and  the  garden  was  a 
lonely  place,  and  only  the  apostles  were  with 
Jesus,  Judas  thought  this  was  the  best  time  to 
betray  his  Master. 

•  So  he  went  to  the  chief  priests,  and  the 
Pharisees,  and  told  them  where  Jesus  was. 
Then  they  called  together  a  band  of  men  and 
gave  them  swords  and  clubs  to  fight  with,  and 
sent  them  with  Judas  to  take  Jesus. 

And  now  Judas  was  bringing  these  men  to 
the  garden,  and  Jesus  knew  they  were  coming, 
yet  he  did  not  flee  away,  but  waited  to  let  them 
take  him,  because  he  knew  that  the  time  had 
come,  for  him  to  die. 

And  while  he  was  yet  speaking  to  the  apos- 
tles, and  telling  them  that  the  one  who  would 
betray  him  was  coming  near,  Judas  came,  and 
the  band  of  men  with  him,  carrying  swords 
and  clubs  and  lanterns.  Now  Judas  had  told 
these  men  how  they  should  know  which  one 
was  Jesus.  He  said  to  them,  The  one  I  shall 
kiss  is  he ;  take  him  and  hold  him  fast. 

Then  Judas  came  to  Jesus  and  pretended 
he  was  glad  to  see  him ;  and  he  said,  Master, 
Master,  and  kissed  him.  But  Jesus  said  to 
him,  Judas,  dost  thou  betray  me  with  a  kiss? 
Then  the  men,  when  they  saw  Judas  kiss  him, 


166  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

took  hold  of  Jesus  and  bound  him  with  fetters, 
or  ropes,  to  take  him  away. 

When  the  apostles  saw  them  do  this  they 
wanted  to  fight  against  them ;  they  said  to 
Jesus,  Lord,  shall  we  fight  them  with  swords  ? 
And  Peter,  who  had  a  sword,  drew  it  out  of 
the  sheath,  or  cover,  that  it  was  in,  and  struck 
one  of  the  men  and  cut  off  his  ear. 

But  Jesus  told  Peter  to  put  his  sword  back 
again  into  its  sheath.  His  Father,  he  said, 
would  send  thousands  of  angels  to  fight  for 
him  and  save  him  from  dying,  if  he  would 
ask  for  them. 

But  Jesus  would  not  ask  for  them.  Because, 
unless  he  died,  we  could  not  be  forgiven. 
Therefore,  he  was  willing  to  be  taken,  and 
put  to  death,  for  our  sakes.  And  he  put  out 
his  hand  and  touched  the  man's  ear  that  Peter 
had  struck  with  the  sword,  and  made  the  place 
well  again. 

And  when  the  ajDOstles  saw  the  band  of  men 
taking  Jesus,  they  were  afraid  lest  they  might 
be  taken  with  him,  and  they  all  left  him  and 
fled  away. 

We  have  read  how  Jesus  told  them  at  the 
table,  while  they  were  eating  the  Passover 
together,  that  they  would  be  tempted  to  leave 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  167 

him  that  night.  And  they  said,  No,  we  will 
never  leave  thee.  And  Peter  said,  Though  all 
the  rest  should  leave  thee,  I  never  will.  But 
now  Peter  and  all  the  others  fled  away  and 
left  him  with  his  enemies. 

I  have  told  you  that  some  of  the  priests  at 
the  temple  were  called  chief  priests,  because 
they  were  the  chief,  or  principal  ones.  But 
there  was  one  priest  who  was  greater,  even,  than 
the  chief  priests ;  he  was  called  the  high  priest. 
He  was  over  all  the  other  priests,  and  was  a 
great  man  among  the  Jews,  for  he  was  one  of 
the  rulers  over  the  j3eople. 

And  now  the  men  who  had  taken  Jesus 
brought  him  to  the  high  priest's  house,  and  all 
the  chief  priests  and  the  other  rulers  of  the 
Jews  were  there. 

Now  when  Peter  saw  the  band  of  men  lead- 
ing Jesus  away  from  the  garden,  he  followed 
them ;  yet  he  did  not  follow  close  after  them, 
but  a  good  way  off,  hoping  no  one  would  notice 
him. 

And  when  they  brought  Jesus  into  the  high 
priest's  house,  Peter  came  in  too.  And  he 
sat  down,  with  the  servants,  by  a  fire  that  was 
burning  there,  and  warmed  himself.  He 
wanted  to  see  what  would  be  done  to  Jesus,  but 


168  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

he  did  not  want  any  one  to  know  that  he  had 
been  with  him,  and  was  one  of  his  disomies. 

And  while  he  was  sitting  there,  a  young 
woman,  who  was  a  servant,  came  and  looked  at 
him  and  asked  if  he  was  not  one  of  Jesus' 
disciples.  But  Peter  said  he  was  not.  And 
he  rose  up  and  went  out  on  to  the  porch.  And 
while  he  was  there  the  cock  crew;  for  it  was 
now  about  the  middle  of  the  night. 

And  presently  another  young  woman  saw 
him,  and  said  to  the  men  who  were  standing 
by,  This  fellow  was  also  with  Jesus.  And 
Peter  said,  again,  that  he  was  not.  And  after 
awhile  another  servant,  that  was  a  relation  to 
the  man  whose  ear  he  had  cut  off,  came  to 
Peter,  and  said,  Did  I  not  see  thee  with  him 
in  the  garden  ? 

Then  Peter  pretended  to  be  very  angry  at 
being  asked  so  often  if  he  was  not  with  Jesus ; 
and  he  said,  I  do  not  know  the  man  you  are 
speaking  about.  And  as  soon  as  he  said  this, 
the  cock  crew  a  second  time. 

Now  Jesus  was  where  he  could  hear  what 
Peter  said,  and  when  he  heard  him  say,  the 
third  time,  that  he  had  not  been  with  him,  and 
was  not  his  disciple,  Jesus  turned  and  looked 
at  Peter. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  169 

And  Peter  saw  him  looking,  and  it  made 
him  remember  how  Jesus  had  said,  that  before 
the  cock  should  crow  twice,  Peter  would  say, 
three  times,  that  he  did  not  know  him.  And 
when  Peter  remembered  this,  and  thought  how 
wicked  he  had  been,  he  went  out  of  the  house 
to  a  place  alone,  and  wept  bitterly. 

Now  the  high  priest  and  the  other  men  who 
were  the  rulers  over  the  Jews,  used  to  meet 
together  in  a  room  near  the  temple.  And 
there  they  held  a  court  to  try  persons,  and 
punish  them,  when  they  had  done  anything 
against  the  law. 

And  as  soon  as  it  was  morning,  they  took 
Jesus  before  this  court  to  try  him.  And  they 
brought  false  witnesses,  that  is,  persons  who 
would  tell  lies  against  him,  and  say  that  he 
had  done  wickedly.  They  brought  them  because 
they  wanted  an  excuse  for  punishing  Jesus,  by 
putting  him  to  death. 

But  though  the  false  witnesses  spoke  against 
him,  they  could  not  prove  that  he  had  done 
anything  wrong.  Then  the  high  priest  spoke 
to  Jesus,  and  asked  him  if  he  wrere  the  Son  of 
God.     And  Jesus  said  that  he  was. 

And  he  told  the  high  priest  and  the  rulers, 
that   at    the  Judgment  Day,  they  should  see 


170  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

him  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  and 
coming  down  to  this  world  again,  in  the  clouds, 
from  heaven. 

Then  the  high  j3riest  was  very  angry,  and 
said,  that  Jesus  had  spoken  wickedly  about 
God.  And  he  asked  the  rulers  in  the  court, 
how  they  thought  he  ought  to  be  punished,  and 
they  all  said  that  he  ought  to  be  put  to  death. 

Then  they  mocked  Jesus,  and  did  spit  upon 
him.  And  they  bound  a  cloth,  or  bandage, 
around  his  eyes,  so  that  he  could  not  see,  and 
struck  him  with  their  hands.  Then  they 
asked  him  who  it  was  that  struck  him,  because, 
they  said,  that  if  he  were  the  Son  of  God,  he 
could  tell  who  it  wTas  without  seeing  him. 

Now  the  rulers  of  the  Jews  had  different 
ways  of  punishing  persons  who  had  broken 
the  law.  But  whenever  they  wanted  to  punish 
any  one  by  putting  him  to  death,  they  had  to 
ask  permission  of  the  Roman  governor.  For, 
as  we  have  been  told,  the  Jews  were  servants 
to  the  Romans.  And  they  were  not  allowed 
to  put  any  one  to  death  without  asking  the 
governor's  consent.  Therefore,  the  rulers,  and 
all  the  Jews  who  were  in  the  court  with  them, 
rose  uj}  and  took  Jesus  to  the  Roman  governor, 
whose  name  was  Pilate. 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  171 

And  when  they  had  brought  him  into  Pilate's 
house,  they  began  to  speak  against  him.  They 
told  Pilate  that  he  taught  the  Jews  to  disobey 
the  Romans,  and  said  he  was  a  king  himself. 

Then  Pilate  asked  him  if  he  was  a  king. 
Jesus  answered,  I  am.  And  yet,  he  said,  he 
was  not  like  the  kings  of  this  world.  Jesus 
is  not  like  the  kings  of  this  world  because  he 
rules  in  the  hearts  of  the  people  who  love 
him,  and  has  his  kingdom  there. 

And  Pilate  spoke  to  the  Jews  and  told  them 
that  although  they  had  brought  Jesus  to  him, 
and  said  he  had  done  wrong,  yet  when  he  had 
questioned  him,  he  could  not  find  any  fault  in 
him.  And  Pilate  said  that  Jesus  had  not  done 
anything  for  which  he  deserved  to  die. 

Now  every  year,  at  this  time,  when  the  feast 
of  the  Passover  was  being  held  in  Jerusalem, 
if  any  of  the  Jews  were  shut  up  in  prison  for 
disobeying  the  Romans,  the  Roman  governor 
used  to  set  one  of  them  free.  And  he  allowed 
the  Jews  to  say  which  prisoner  it  should  be. 
He  did  this  to  please  them  and  make  them 
willing  to  let  him  rule  over  them. 

And,  now,  because  it  was  the  time  for  the 
Passover,  the  Jews  came  to  Pilate  and  asked 
him  to  do  as  he  had  always  done  before,  and 


172  THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL. 

set  one  of  the  prisoners  free.  Pilate  asked  them 
which  one  it  should  be ;  whether  it  should  be 
Jesus.     They  said,  No,  it  shall  be  Barabbas. 

Now  Barabbas  was  a  wicked  man,  who  had 
been  put  in  prison  for  murder ;  he  had  killed 
some  one.  Yet  the  Jews  chose  him  as  the  one 
for  Pilate  to  set  free.  Pilate  said,  What  then 
shall  I  do  with  Jesus  ?  And  they  all  cried  out, 
Crucify  him,  crucify,  him.  Pilate  said,  Why, 
what  evil  has  he  done?  But  they  cried  out 
the  more,  Crucify  him. 

Now  Pilate  did  not  want  to  crucify  Jesus, 
and  yet  he  was  afraid  of  offending  the  Jews 
by  refusing  to  do  as  they  asked  him.  So 
when  they  cried  out  to  crucify  him,  Pilate 
took  some  water  and  washed  his  hands  before 
all  the  people,  and  he  said  to  them,  I  will 
have  nothing  to  do  with  j^utting  this  good 
man  to  death  ;  see  ve  to  it. 

Pilate  meant,  by  washing  his  hands,  to  put 
the  sin  away  from  himself,  just  as  if  it  had 
been  some  spot  that  he  could  wash  from  his 
hands  with  water. 

But  the  sin  was  not  on  Pilate's  hands ;  it 
was  in  his  heart,  because,  when  he  knew  that 
Jesus  was  innocent,  he  would  not  let  him  go, 
but  gave  him  up  to  the  Jews  to  be  crucified. 


THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL.  173 

Now,  the  Romans,  before  they  crucified  a 
man,  used  to  scourge,  or  beat,  him.  They  took 
off  his  clothes,  down  to  his  waist,  and  tied  his 
hands  fast  to  a  low  post,  or  ^pillar,  in  front  of 
him.  This  made  him  stoop  forward  a  little. 
And  while  he  stood  stooping  in  this  way,  they 
beat  him  cruelly  on  the  bare  back  with  rods, 
or  cords. 

Pilate,  therefore,  took  Jesus  and  scourged 
him.  Afterward,  the  soldiers  who  were  going 
to  put  him  to  death,  took  him  into  a  room  in 
Pilate's  house,  and  they  called  there  all  the 
soldiers  that  belonged  to  their  band,  or  com- 
pany.    Then  they  began  to  mock  Jesus. 

Because  he  had  said  he  was  a  king,  they  took 
off  his  own  coat  and  put  on  him  a  j^urple  robe; 
for  kings  were  dressed  in  purple.  And  when 
they  had  plaited  a  wreath  of  thorns,  they  put 
it  on  his  head  instead  of  a  crown.  And  instead 
of  a  golden  sceptre,  or  rod,  such  as  kings  held, 
they  put  a  reed,  or  stick,  in  his  right  hand. 

Then  they  bowed  down  before  him,  pre- 
tending he  was  a  king,  and  saying,  Hail,  King 
of  the  Jews.  And  they  did  spit  on  him,  and 
took  the  reed  from  him  and  struck  him  on  the 
head,  and  they  struck  him  also  with  their 
hands. 


174  THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL. 

And  now,  after  all  these  things  had  been 
done  to  Jesus,  Pilate  thought  he  would  try 
again  to  save  him  from  being  crucified.  He 
hoped  that  the  Jews  would  be  satisfied  with 
his  being  scourged,  and  mocked,  and  treated 
so  cruelly. 

So  after  the  soldiers  had  done  these  things 
to  him,  Pilate  brought  Jesus  out  where  the 
Jews  could  see  him,  with  the  crown  of  thorns 
on  his  head,  and  wearing  the  purple  robe. 
And  Pilate  said  to  the  Jews,  I  have  brought 
him  out  to  you  to  tell  you,  once  more,  that  I 
find  no  fault  in  him. 

When  the  chief  priests  and  all  the  Jews 
saw  him,  they  cried  out,  Crucify  him,  crucify 
him.  Pilate  said  to  them,  You  may  take  him 
yourselves,  then,  and  crucify  him,  for  I  do  not 
find  any  fault  in  him. 

But,  instead  of  saying  this,  Pilate  ought  to 
have  told  the  Jews  that  they  should  not  harm 
Jesus,  for  he  knew  that  he  had  not  done  any- 
thing wrong.  And  Pilate  was  the  governor 
and  had  the  power  to  set  him  free. 

Yet  for  fear  the  Jews  would  be  offended  and 
want  some  other  man  for  their  governor,  he 
gave  Jesus  to  them,  and  sent  soldiers  also  with 
them,  to  put  him  to  death. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  175 

Now  when  Judas  Iscariot,  who  betrayed 
him,  saw  that  Jesus  was  really  to  die,  he  was 
greatly  afraid  for  what  he  had  done. 

And  he  came  to  the  chief  priests  and  rulers 
with  the  thirty  pieces  of  silver  they  had  given 
him,  and  he  asked  them  to  take  the  money 
back ;  for  he  said,  I  have  sinned  in  taking  it, 
because  I  have  betrayed  a  person  who  has  done 
nothing  wrong. 

But  the  chief  priests  and  rulers  answered 
him,  saying,  What  is  that  to  us?  Do  thou 
attend  to  that.  And  they  would  not  take  the 
money  back,  because  they  did  not  want  to  let 
Jesus  go. 

Then  Judas  threw  down  the  silver  pieces  on 
the  ground,  and  he  went  away  and  hanged 
himself,  by  a  cord,  or  rope,  around  his  neck, 
until  he  was  dead.  For  he  could  not  bear  to 
think  of  his  great  sin  in  betraying  his  Master. 

Then  the  chief  priests  took  the  silver  pieces 
and  bought  with  them  a  field,  called  the  Potter's 
Field.  And  that  field  was  used  afterward  to 
bury  strangers,  who  died  in  Jerusalem,  and 
who  had  no  other  place  where  they  might  be 
buried. 

And  the  soldiers,  after  they  had  mocked 
Jesus,  took  off  the  purple  robe  from  him,  and 


176  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

put  his  own  clothes  on  him.  Then  they  led 
him  away  to  crucify  him. 

And  because  the  cross  that  he  was  to  be 
nailed  to,  was  too  heavy  for  him  to  carry  alone, 
they  made  a  man  named  Simon,  whom  they 
met  coming  out  of  the  country,  help  Jesus 
carry  it. 

And  they  brought  him  to  a  place  called 
Calvary,  which  was  a  little  way  out  of  Jeru- 
salem. There  they  nailed  him  to  the  cross, 
driving  the  great  nails  through  his  hands  and 
his  feet,  and  so  they  crucified  him. 

And  while  they  were  crucifying  him,  Jesus 
]3rayed  for  them  to  his  Father  in  heaven.  He 
said,  Father,  forgive  them  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do.  He  meant  that  they  did  not 
know  they  were  crucifying  the  Son  of  God. 

And  they  gave  Jesus  to  drink  some  vinegar, 
mixed  with  a  bitter  stuff  called  gall.  They 
gave  him  this  because  it  would  make  him 
sleep,  and  feel  his  pains  less. 

But  when  he  had  tasted  it  he  would  not 
drink  of  it,  for  he  did  not  want  those  pains 
made  less,  because  he  was  bearing  them  for  us, 
to  save  us  from  being  in  pain  forever. 

And  at  the  same  time  they  crucified  Jesus, 
they  crucified  two   men  with  him,  one  on  a 


THE    STOKY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  177 

cross  at  his  right  hand,  and  another  on  a  cross 
at  his  left.  But  these  were  wicked  men  ;  they 
were  thieves,  who  were  being  put  to  death  for 
the  evil  things  they  had  done. 

Now  persons  who  were  crucified  did  not  die 
at  once ;  they  lived  sometimes  for  many  hours 
after  they  had  been  nailed  to  the  cross.  And 
so  Jesus,  although  he  was  nailed  to  the  cross 
in  the  morning,  did  not  die  until  the  afternoon. 
But  all  that  time  he  was  hanging  there  in  the 
greatest  suffering  and  pain. 

And  the  soldiers  who  had  crucified  him, 
sat  down  and  watched  him,  so  that  no  one 
might  come  and  draw  out  the  nails  from  his 
hands  and  his  feet,  and  take  him  down  from 
the  cross. 

And  they  took  his  clothes  and  divided  them 
among  themselves ;  one  soldier  taking  one 
part,  and  another  soldier  another  part.  But 
his  coat  they  cast  lots  for,  to  see  which  soldier 
should  take  it. 

And  Pilate,  the  governor,  made  a  writing, 
and  had  it  fastened  to  the  cross  over  the  head 
of  Jesus.  These  were  the  words  that  he  wrote, 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  the  King  of  the  Jews. 

And  many  of  the  Jews  read  these  words  as 

they  passed  by.     For  the  place  where  he  was 

12 


178  THE   STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL. 

crucified  was  near  the  gate  of  Jerusalem,  where 
the  people  went  in  and  out  of  the  city. 

And  as  they  looked  up  at  Jesus,  they  had 
no  pity  for  him,  but  they  mocked  him  and 
shook  their  heads  at  him,  and  told  him,  if  he 
were  the  Son  of  God,  to  come  down  from  the 
cross.  And  so  he  might  have  done,  had  he 
chosen  to,  but  he  chose  to  stay  there,  and  die 
for  you  and  for  me. 

And  one  of  the  thieves  who  were  crucified 
with  him,  spoke  wickedly  to  him;  but  the  other 
thief  repented  of  his  sins  and  asked  Jesus  to 
forgive  him  and  save  him.  And  Jesus  told 
the  penitent  thief,  that  on  that  very  day,  as 
soon  as  he  died,  he  should  go  to  the  happy 
place  where  Jesus  himself  was  going. 

And  Mary,  the  mother  of  Jesus,  was  standing 
by  his  cross,  and  so  was  that  apostle  whom 
Jesus  loved,  the  one  who  leaned  on  his  breast 
at  the  table  while  they  were  eating  the  feast  of 
the  Passover. 

And  because  Jesus  was  going  to  die  and 
leave  his  mother,  he  wanted  that  apostle  to 
take  care  of  her.  Therefore  Jesus  spoke  to 
him  and  told  him  to  love  Mary  as  much,  and 
to  be  as  kind  to  her,  after  he  was  gone  away, 
as  if  she  were  his  own  mother. 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  179 

And  he  told  Mary  to  let  that  apostle  be  the 
same  to  her  as  if  he  were  her  own  son.  And 
from  that  hour  that  apostle,  whose  name  was 
John,  took  Mary  to  his  own  home  to  take  care 
of  her  and  give  her  everything  that  she  needed. 

And  now,  while  Jesus  was  hanging  on  the 
cross,  there  came  darkness,  and  for  three  hours 
it  was  dark  over  all  the  land.  Yet  it  was  not 
in  the  night,  it  was  in  the  day  time.  But  God 
sent  that  darkness  because  his  Son  was  being 
put  to  death  for  our  sins. 

And  Jesus  cried  out  with  a  loud  voice  from 
the  cross,  to  his  Father  in  heaven,  and  asked 
his  Father  why  he  turned  away  from  him  as 
if  he  did  not  love  him  any  more. 

You  know  that  sometimes  your  father  has 
turned  his  face  away  from  you,  because  he  was 
displeased  at  you  for  disobeying  him.  And  so 
we  believe  that  God  was  now  turning  away 
from  Jesus. 

Yet  Jesus  had  not  disobeyed  God.  But  we 
have  done  so,  many  times,  and  Jesus  was  taking 
the  blame  on  himself.  Therefore  God  turned 
away  from  him  the  same  as  if  Jesus  himself 
had  sinned.  When  Jesus  saw  this  it  troubled 
him  more  than  all  the  pains  he  had  to  bear, 
and  he  cried  out. 


180  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

And  one  of  the  men  who  stood  near  the 
cross,  when  he  heard  Jesus  cry,  took  a  piece 
of  sponge  and  filled  it  with  vinegar,  and  lifted 
it  up  on  a  long  reed,  or  stick,  to  the  mouth  of 
Jesus,  so  that  he  could  drink  the  vinegar. 

And  when  he  had  drunk  it,  he  said,  It  is 
finished.  He  meant  that  all  the  punishment 
which  he  had  come  down  from  heaven  to  bear 
for  us,  was  finished.  And  he  bov^ed  his  head 
and  died. 

Then  the  ground  shook,  and  the  rocks  that 
were  underneath  the  ground  were  broken  in 
pieces.  And  many  graves  in  which  good 
people  were  buried,  opened,  and  those  who 
were  buried  in  them  rose  up,  and  went  into  the 
city  of  Jerusalem,  and  many  persons  saw  them, 

alive,  there. 

And  when  the  Roman  soldiers  who  had 
nailed  Jesus  to  the  cross,  saw  the  wonderful 
things  that  happened  at  his  death,  they  were 
afraid,  and  said,  Surely  this  man  was  the  Son 
of  God. 


THE   STORY   OF   THE   GOSPEL.  181 


CHAPTER  XII. 


PILATE  SENDS  SOLDIERS  TO  KILL  JESUS.  JOSEPH  BURIES  HIM 
IX  HIS  NEW  SEPULCHRE.  SOLDIERS  WATCH  THERE. 
JESUS  RISES  FROM  THE  DEAD.  HE  SHOWS  HIMSELF  AT 
DIFFERENT  TIMES  TO  THE  APOSTLES.  HE  ASCENDS  TO 
HEAVEN. 


NOW,  as  we  have  read,  Jesus  was  not  crucified 
in  Jerusalem,  but  at  a  place  a  little  way  out 
of  the  city.  Therefore  the  Jews  who  were  in  the 
city  did  not  know  that  he  was  dead.  They 
knew  that  he  was  nailed  to  the  cross  and  that 
he  must  soon  die,  but  they  did  not  know  he 
had  died  already. 

So  some  of  them  went  to  Pilate,  the  gover- 
nor, and  asked  him  to  send  soldiers  to  kill 
Jesus  and  the  two  thieves  that  were  crucified 
with  him.  They  did  this  because  they  wanted 
their  dead  bodies  to  be  taken  down  from  the 
cross,  and  buried,  before  the  next  day,  for  that 
was  the  Sabbath  day. 

Then  Pilate  commanded  some  soldiers  to  go 
and    do  as  the  Jews   asked    him.       And   the 


182  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

soldiers  went  and  broke  the  legs  of  the  two 
thieves  to  kill  them. 

But  when  they  came  to  Jesus  they  found 
that  he  was  dead  already ;  therefore  they  did 
not  break  his  legs.  But  one  of  the  soldiers 
took  a  spear  and  "thrust  it  into  his  side,  and 
there  came  out  blood  and  water. 

Now  at  the  place  where  Jesus  was  crucified 
there  was  a  garden,  and  in  the  garden  was  a 
new  sepulchre,  or  burying-place,  where  no  one 
had  ever  yet  been  buried.  It  was  a  cave 
hollowed  out  of  a  rock,  and  it  belonged  to  a 
rich  man,  named  Joseph,  who  lived  in  the  city 
of  Arimathea. 

Joseph  was  a  disciple  of  Jesus,  and  loved 
him,  but  before  this  time  he  had  not  let  it  be 
known,  because  he  was  afraid  the  Jews  would 
treat  him  unkindly,  and  persecute  him. 

But  now,  after  Jesus  was  dead,  Joseph  would 
not  keep  it  a  secret  any  longer.  And  he  went 
and  begged  Pilate  to  let  him  take  the  dead  body 
of  Jesus,  so  that  he  might  bury  it  in  his  new 
sepulchre  that  was  in  the  garden. 

And  Pilate  gave  him  leave.  So  Joseph  took 
the  body  of  Jesus  down  from  the  cross,  and 
wrapped  it  in  some  new,  fine  linen  that  he  had 
bought,  and  he  laid  it  in  the  sepulchre.     Then 


THE   STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  183 

he  rolled  a  great  stone  to  the  door  and  shut  up 
the  sepulchre,  and  he  left  the  body  of  Jesus 
there. 

And  two  women  were  sitting  by  the  sepul- 
chre and  they  saw  where  the  body  of  Jesus 
was  laid.  Both  of  these  women  were  named 
Mary,  and  both  of  them  were  disciples  of  Jesus. 
And  after  they  had  seen  where  he  was  buried 
they  went  away  to  their  own  homes,  to  stay 
there  the  next  day,  for,  as  we  have  read,  that 
day  was  the  Sabbath. 

But,  on  the  day  after  the  Sabbath,  they 
intended  to  come  back,  and  bring  some  oint- 
ments and  spices  to  put  on  his  body ;  for  so 
the  Jews  used  to  do  to  the  bodies  of  persons 
whom  they  buried. 

Now,  after  he  was  laid  in  the  sepulchre,  some 
of  the  Jews  came  to  Pilate,  and  told  him  that 
Jesus  had  said  he  would  rise  up  from  the  dead 
on  the  third  day. 

Therefore  they  asked  Pilate  to  send  soldiers 
to  watch  at  the  sepulchre,  for  fear  some  of  the 
disciples  might  come  in  the  night  and  steal  his 
body  away,  and  then  go  and  tell  the  people  he 
had  risen  up  from  the  dead.  And  Pilate  did 
as  the  Jews  asked  him;  he  sent  soldiers  to 
watch  at  the  sepulchre. 


184  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

But,  in  the  night,  while  they  were  watching, 
there  was  a  great  earthquake,  and  the  ground 
where  they  stood  was  shaken.  For  God  sent 
an  angel  down  from  heaven,  and  the  angel 
rolled  away  the  stone  from  the  door  of  the 
sepulchre  and  sat  upon  it. 

His  face  was  bright,  like  lightning,  and  his 
clothes  were  as  white  as  snow.  And  the 
soldiers,  though  they  were  brave  men,  and 
ready  to  go  into  battle,  yet  when  they  saw  the 
angel,  they  trembled  and  were  so  afraid  that 
they  fell  down,  and  could  not  move,  and  were 
like  dead  men. 

Very  early  the  next  morning,  as  soon  as  it 
was  light,  the  two  women  who  sat  by  the 
sepulchre,  and  another  woman  with  them,  whose 
name  was  Salome,  came,  bringing  the  spices 
and  ointments  which  they  had  made  ready  to 
put  on  the  body  of  Jesus. 

As  they  were  coming  they  said  to  each  other, 
Who  shall  roll  away  the  stone  from  the  door 
for  us?  For  it  was  very  great  and  heavy. 
But  when  they  came  near,  they  saw  that  the 
stone  was  rolled  away. 

And  they  went  into  the  sepulchre,  and 
there  they  saw  an  angel  dressed  in  long  white 
garments.     And  the  women  were  afraid. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE   GOSPEL.  185 

But  the  angel  said  to  them,  Be  not  afraid. 
You  are  looking  for  Jesus  who  was  crucified. 
He  is  not  here,  he  is  risen.  Come  and  see  the 
place  where  they  laid  him;  and  go  and  tell  his 
apostles  that  he  has  risen  up  from  the  dead. 

And  the  women  went  out  quickly  and  fled 
away  from  the  sepulchre,  for  they  were  greatly 
afraid,  and  yet  they  were  full  of  joy  to  know 
that  Jesus  had  risen  again.  And  as  they  went 
to  tell  the  aj3ostles,  Jesus  himself  met  them. 
And  they  bowed  down  before  him,  and  held 
him  by  the  feet  and  worshipped  him. 

Then  he  told  them  not  to  be  afraid,  but  to 
tell  his  apostles  that  they  should  go  into  that 
part  of  the  land  which  was  called  Galilee,  and 
there,  he  said,  he  would  meet  them. 

So  the  women  went  as  Jesus  commanded 
them,  and  they  came  to  the  apostles  and  told 
them  that  he  was  risen,  and  that  they  had  seen 
him.  But  the  aj)ostles  thought  they  were 
speaking  only  foolish  words,  and  they  did  not 
believe  them. 

Yet  Peter  and  John,  two  of  the  apostles, 
made  haste  and  came  to  the  sepulchre.  They 
ran,  both  of  them  together,  but  John  ran  faster 
than  Peter  and  came  first  to  the  sepulchre. 
And  he  stooped  down  and  looked   in  at  the 


186  THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

door,  and  saw  the  linen  clothes  which  Jesus 
had  worn,  lying  there,  but  he  did  not  go  in. 

But  Peter,  when  he  came,  went  into  the 
sepulchre.  And  he  saw  the  linen  clothes  and 
the  napkin,  or  towel,  which  had  been  wrapt 
around  the  head  of  Jesus.  This  was  not  lying 
with  the  linen  clothes,  but  was  folded  together 
in  a  place  by  itself. 

Then,  after  Peter  had  gone  in,  John  went  in 
also,  and  saw  that  Jesus  was  not  there,  and 
he  believed  that  he  had  risen  from  the  dead. 
And  the  two  disciples  went  away  to  their  own 
homes. 

Now  after  Jesus  had  risen,  some  of  the 
soldiers  who  had  guarded  the  sepulchre  went 
to  the  chief  priests  in  Jerusalem,  and  told  them 
how  the  angel  had  come  down  from  heaven  and 
rolled  away  the  stone,  and  how  Jesus  had  risen 
uj)  from  the  dead. 

Then  the  chief  priests  gave  the  soldiers  a 
great  deal  of  money  and  told  them  not  to  tell 
this  to  the  people,  but  to  say  that  Lis  disci]3les 
had  come  in  the  night,  while  they  were  asleep, 
and  stolen  his  body  away. 

The  chief  priests  asked  the  soldiers  not  to 
tell  the  people,  because  they  did  not  want  them 
to  know  that  Jesus  had  risen  up  from  the  dead, 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  187 

for  then  they  would  believe  in  him,  that  he  was 
the  Son  of  God. 

So  the  soldiers  took  the  money  and  did  as 
the  chief  priests  told  them.  Therefore,  ever 
since  that  time,  the  Jews  have  said  that  Jesus 
did  not  rise  up  from  the  dead,  but  that  his 
disci]3les  came  in  the  night,  while  the  soldiers 
were  asleep,  and  stole  his  body  away  from  the 
sepulchre. 

And  on  the  same  day  that  Jesus  arose,  two 
of  his  disciples  were  walking  along  the  road 
together  to  a  village,  named  Emmaus,  which 
was  about  seven  miles  from  Jerusalem.  And 
they  talked  with  one  another  about  the  things 
that  had  happened. 

And  while  they  were  talking  together,  Jesus 
came  near  and  walked  with  them.  But  his 
face  was  changed  so  that  they  did  not  know 
him,  and  they  thought  he  was  some  stranger. 
And  he  asked  them  what  they  were  talking 
about  that  made  them  look  sad. 

Then  one  of  them,  whose  name  was  Cleoj^as, 
asked  him  if  he  was  only  a  stranger  in  Jeru- 
salem that  he  had  not  heard  of  the  things 
which  had  happened  there.  He  asked  them, 
What  things? 

They  told  him  how  a  great  prophet,  named 


188  THE    STORY   OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

Jesus,  had  been  there  and  done  miracles  for 
the  people.  Yet  the  chief  priests,  and  rulers 
of  the  Jews,  had  taken  him  and  crucified  him. 

And  this  is  the  third  day,  the  disciples  said, 
since  he  was  crucified.  Yes,  and  some  women 
who  belong  to  our  company,  and  who  have 
been  to  his  sepulchre,  have  made  us  astonished, 
by  saying  that  he  was  not  there,  and  that  they 
saw  angels  who  told  them  he  was  alive. 

And  some  of  the  men,  also,  who  were  with 
us,  went  afterward  to  the  sepulchre  and  found 
it  was  as  the  women  had  said ;  but  they  did 
not  see  him. 

And  while  the  two  disciples  were  talking 
with  Jesus,  they  came  near  to  the  village  where 
they  were  going.  Then  Jesus  walked  on,  as 
though  he  would  leave  them  and  go  further. 

But  the  disciples,  because  they  thought  he 
was  some  traveller  on  a  journey,  begged  him 
to  come  to  their  house  and  stay  with  them  that 
night,  for  they  said,  It  is  near  evening  and  the 
day  is  almost  gone.  Then  Jesus  went  with 
them  into  the  house  and  sat  down  with  them 
to  supper. 

And  while  they  were  at  the  table  he  took 
bread  in  his  hands,  and  when  he  had  thanked 
God  for  it,  he  broke  it  in  pieces,  and  gave  the 


THE   STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  189 

pieces  to  the  two  disciples.  And  as  lie  did 
tli is  they  knew  him,  and  saw  that  it  was  Jesus. 
And,  in  a  moment,  he  was  gone  away  out  of 
their  sight. 

Then  they  said  to  each  other,  Were  we  not 
interested  in  the  things  that  he  said  to  us  while 
he  talked  with  us  by  the  way  ?  And  they  rose 
up  quickly  from  the  table  and  went  back  to 
Jerusalem,  and  came  to  the  house  where  the 
apostles  were. 

And  they  told  the  apostles  how  they  had 
seen  Jesus  and  talked  with  him,  and  how  they 
had  known  him  while  he  was  breaking  bread 
at  the  table. 

And  while  the  two  disciples  were  telling 
the  apostles  of  these  things,  suddenly  Jesus 
himself  stood  among  them.  And  the  apostles 
were  afraid  when  they  saw  him,  for  they 
thought  it  was  not  Jesus,  but  a  spirit. 

But  he  asked  them  why  they  were  afraid : 
he  told  them  to  touch  him  and  see  that  it  was 
he,  himself.  For  he  said  that  a  spirit  had  not 
a  body  such  as  they  saw  he  had.  Then  he 
showed  them  his  hands  and  his  feet,  with  the 
marks  of  the  nails  in  them. 

And  while  they  wondered  and  could  hardly 
believe  it  was  Jesus,  because  they  were  so  glad, 


190  THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 

he  asked  them  if  they  had  any  food  there. 
And  they  gave  him  a  piece  of  a  broiled  fish, 
and  some  honey;  and  he  did  eat  before  them. 
When  they  saw  him  do  this  they  knew  it  was 
not  a  spirit,  but  Jesus  himself. 

Then  he  talked  with  the  apostles  and  told 
them  why  he  had  died,  and  risen  again  on  the 
third  day.  The  reason  was  that,  if  he  had  not 
done  it,  our  sins  could  never  have  been  for- 
given. But  now,  after  he  had  died  for  us,  God 
was  willing  to  forgive  every  person  who  would 
repent,  and  believe  in  Jesus. 

And  Jesus  wanted  every  person  to  hear  this 
good  news.  And  because  the  apostles  knew 
about  these  things,  they  were  the  ones,  he  said, 
to  go  and  tell  it.  They  were  to  tell  it  not  only 
to  the  Jews  who  lived  in  the  land  of  Israel; 
but  they  were  to  go  over  the  whole  world  and 
tell  it  to  all  the  people. 

And  Jesus  commanded  the  apostles  to  bap- 
tize every  person  who  repented  and  believed  in 
him.  Those  who  believed  and  were  baj)tized, 
he  said,  should  be  saved,  but  those  who  would 
not  believe  in  him  should  be  lost. 

But  one  of  the  apostles,  named  Thomas,  was 
not  with  the  others  when  Jesus  came.  And 
afterward,  when  they  told  him  they  had  seen 
Jesus,  Thomas  would  not  believe  them. 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  191 

He  said,  Unless  I  shall  see,  for  myself,  the 
marks  of  the  nails  in  his  hands,  and  shall 
put  my  hand  into  the  wound  that  the  spear 
made  in  his  side,  I  will  not  believe  it  was 
Jesus. 

And  after  eight  days  the  apostles  were  in 
a  room  together,  again,  with  the  doors  shut, 
and  Thomas  was  with  them.  Then  Jesus  came 
and  stood  among  them  as  he  did  before. 

Now  he  knew  what  Thomas  had  said:  and 
he  spoke  to  him,  and  told  him,  to  reach  out 
his  finger  and  touch  the  marks  in  his  hands, 
and  to  reach  out  his  hand  and  touch  the  wound 
in  his  side,  and  not  to  doubt  any  more,  but  to 
believe  that  he  had  risen  up  from  the  dead. 

When  Thomas  heard  his  voice  and  knew 
that  it  was  Jesus,  he  said  to  him,  My  Lord, 
and  my  God. 

Thomas  called  him  this  because  Jesus  is  God. 
And  his  Father,  who  lives  up  in  heaven,  is 
God.  And  so  is  the  Holy  Spirit.  These 
three  are  God.  They  are  not  three  Gods,  but 
the  three  together  are  one  God. 

We  cannot  understand  this,  for  we  do  not 
know  enough  to  understand  all  the  things 
about  God. 

You  know  that  your  father  has  often  told 


192  THE   SToh'Y    OF   THE   GOSPEL. 

you  things  that  you  could  not  understand.  1  [e 
understood  them,  but  you  could  not.  Yet  you 
believed  them  because  be  told  them  to  you, 
and  he  said  you  would  understand  them  after 
awhile,  when  you  grew  up. 

Now  God  tolls  us  many  things  in  the  Bible 
about  himself  that  we  cannot  understand.  But 
we  believe  them  because  be  tells  them  to  us. 
And  after  awhile,  when  wo  die  and  go  into 
thai  world  where  God  is,  we  shall  understand 
them  better  than  wo  do  now. 

To  believe  a  thing  that  wo  cannot  understand, 
or  see,  just  because  God  tells  it  to  us,  is  to  have 
faith.     And  God  wants  us  to  have  faith. 

Thomas  would  not  believe  that  Jesus  had 
risen  up  from  the  dead  until  he  had  seen  him. 
Bui  Jesus  told  Thomas  that  those  persons  who 
were  willing   to  believe  without  seeing   him, 

j>le;ised  (  o)d. 

Alter  these  things  Peter  and  lour  more  of 
the  apostles,  were  together  by  the  sen.  of  Galilee. 

And  Peter  said,  I  mil  going  fishing.     The  others 

answered,  We  will  go  with  thee.     Then  they 

went  into  a,  boat  and  sailed  out  on  the  sea,  and 
let    their   net  down    into  the  water.      And  they 
fished  all  that  night  and  caughl  nothing. 
When  the  morning  had  come  Jesus  stood  on 


THE   STORY    OF   THE   GOSPEL.  193 

the  shore,  and  the  apostles  saw  him,  but  they 
did  not  know  it  was  Jesus.  And  he  asked  them 
whether  they  had  any  fish,  They  answered, 
No.  Then  he  told  them  to  let  down  the  net 
on  the  right  side  of  the  boat,  and  they  should 

Catch  sonic 

And  they  did  as  Jesus  commanded,  and  then 
were  not  able  to  draw  n|>  the  net  again  because 
of  the  great  number  of  fishes  thai  were  caught 

in  it. 

When  the  apostles  saw  this  miracle,  one  of 
them  said,  It,  is  the  Lord.  Then  Peter  fastened 
his  fisherman's  coat  around  him  and  jumped 
into  the  sea,  that  be  might  make  haste  to  the 
shore.  The  other  apostles  came,  rowing  the 
boat,  and  dragging  the  net  full  of  fishes. 

When  they  came  to  the  land  they  saw  a,  fire 
burning  there,  with  fish  laid  on  it,  and  bread. 
And  Jesus  told  them  to  bring  souk-  of  the  fish 
they  had  caught. 

Then  Peter  went  and  drew  the  net  up  out 
of  the  water  on  to  the  shore,  and  it  was  hill  of 

great  fishes.  There  were  a  hundred  and  fifty- 
three  of  them,  and  yet,  although  there  were  0 
many,  the  net  was  not  broken. 

Then  Jesus  said  to  his  apostles,  Come  and 
eat.     And  ho  gave  them  some  bread,  and  fish 

13 


194  THE    STORY    OF   THE    GOSPEL. 

also;  but  none  of  them  dared  to  ask  him  who 
it  was,  for  they  knew  it  was  the  Lord. 

This  was  the  third  time  he  had  shown  him- 
self to  them  since  he  rose  up  from  the  dead. 
And  not  only  to  the  apostles  did  he  show  him- 
self; but  after  this  he  was  seen  by  more  than 
five  hundred  of  his  disciples  at  one  time. 

At  another  time  the  apostles  saw  him  on  a 
mountain  in  Galilee,  where  he  had  promised 
to  come  and  meet  them.  And  when  they  saw 
him  they  bowed  down  and  worshipped  him. 

Then  he  told  them  to  go  and  teach  the  people 
of  all  nations.  They  were  to  teach  them  to 
be  his  disciples,  and  to  obey  his  words. 

And  Jesus  commanded  the  apostles,  again, 
to  baptize  all  those  persons  who  believed  in 
him.  They  were  to  baptize  them  in  the  name 
of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

To  be  baptized  in  this  name  means,  that  we 
promise  to  love  and  obey  God  as  our  heavenly 
Father,  and  Jesus  as  our  Saviour,  and  the  Holy 
Spirit  as  our  Teacher,  who  comes  into  our 
hearts  and  teaches  us  what  God  wants  us  to  do. 

And  when  forty  days  were  past,  after  he  had 
risen  from  the  dead,  Jesus  came  to  the  apostles 
in  the  city  of  Jerusalem.     And  he  commanded 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL.  195 

them  to  stay  in  Jerusalem  until  God  should 
send  down  the  Holy  Spirit  to  them  from 
heaven. 

We  have  read  how  Jesus  told  the  apostles, 
while  they  were  eating  the  feast  of  the  Passover 
together,  that  God  would  send  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  them,  after  Jesus,  himself,  was  taken  away 
from  them. 

And  now  Jesus  was  to  be  taken  away  from 
them,  and  God  was  going  to  send  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  them.  And  the  Holy  Spirit  would  stay 
with  the  apostles,  and  make  them  remember 
what  Jesus  had  told  them ;  and  would  teach 
them,  also,  what  they  were  to  teach  the  people. 

And  after  he  had  talked  with  them,  Jesus 
led  the  apostles  out  of  Jerusalem  to  the  village 
of  Bethany,  which  was  not  far  off.  And  when 
they  came  there,  he  lifted  up  his  hands  and 
blessed  them. 

And  it  was  so,  that  while  he  was  blessing 
them,  he  was  taken  up  from  them,  and  he  went 
into  a  cloud  out  of  their  sight. 

And  while  they  were  looking  up  after  him, 
two  angels,  in  white  garments,  came  to  them, 
and  the  angels  told  the  apostles  that  Jesus  had 
gone  up  in  the  clouds  to  heaven,  but  that  he 
would  come  down  in  the  clouds  to  the  earth 


196  THE    STORY    OF  THE    GOSPEL, 

again.     They  meant  that  he  would  come  down 
at  the  Judgment  Day. 

And  now,  dear  children,  we  have  read  The 
Story  of  the  Gospel.  Gospel,  as  you  know, 
means  good  news.  And  the  good  news  of  the 
Gospel  is  about  Jesus,  how  he  loved  us,  and 
came  down  to  this  world  to  save  us  from 
being  punished  for  our  sins. 

We  have  read  how  he  was  born,  as  a  little 
child,  in  the  stable  in  Bethlehem,  and  after- 
ward lived  with  Mary,  his  mother,  in  the  city 
of  Nazareth,  until  he  grew  up  to  be  a  man. 
How  he  was  baptized  by  John  in  the  river 
Jordan,  and  then  was  tempted  by  Satan  in  the 
wilderness. 

After  that  he  went  about  doing  good  to  the 
people,  and  teaching  them  to  repent  and  believe 
in  him.  Then  he  died  on  the  cross  for  our 
sins,  and  rose  again  on  the  third  day. 

And  now  he  had  done  all  those  things  for 
us  that  he  came  down  from  heaven  to  do. 
Therefore  he  went  up  to  heaven  again,  where 
he  was  before. 

And  he  is  in  heaven  still,  sitting  by  his 
Father's  side.  But  he  looks  down  from  there 
and  sees  all  those  persons  who  love  and  obey 


THE    STORY    OF    THE    GOSPEL. 


197 


him.  He  never  forgets  them.  He  hears  them 
when  they  pray  to  him;  he  keeps  Satan  from 
hurting  them;  and  he  helps  them  to  do  right. 

And  Jesus  will  stay  in  heaven  till  the  Judg- 
ment Day.  Then  he  will  come  down  to  this 
world,  once  more,  to  judge  the  people.  And 
all  the  people,  as  we  have  been  told,  will  rise 
up  out  of  their  graves,  and  stand  before  him, 
to  be  judged. 

And  he  will  separate  them  into  two  great 
companies.  One  company  will  stand  on  his 
right  hand.  They  will  be  the  righteous.  And 
one  company  will  stand  on  his  left  hand. 
They  will  be  the  wicked.  Then  he  will  send 
the  wicked  away  to  the  place  of  punishment; 
but  the  righteous  he  will  take  up  to  heaven, 
where  they  will  live  with  him  forever. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Adam 10-12 

Andrew 44-61 

Angels 9 

Anointing 151 

Apostles,  called 61, 85 

B. 

Baptism 30 

Barabbas 172 

Bartimeus 131 

Beatitudes 62, 63 

Bethany 103 

Bethesda 57 

Bethlehem 14 

Bethsaida 91 

Bier 68 

C. 

Calvary 176 

Cana 36 

Capernaum 46 

Centurion 66, 67 

Cleopas     187 

Cross 130 

D. 

Disciple 36 

Dove 31 

E. 

Eden 10-12 

Egypt 20 

Eminaus loJ 

Eve     10-12 

F. 
Faith ' 191 

G 

Galilee 40 

Gall 176 

Gates 57 

Gethsemane 163 

Gospel 49 

199 


200  INDEX. 


H.  PAGE 

Herod  the  Great 17-20 

Herod  Antipas o7-39 

Herodias 3».  3'.) 

Holy  Communion 159 

Holy  Spirit  descends  upon  Jesus 31 

renews  our  hearts 30 

I. 

Israel,  land  of 13 

Israelites 17 

J. 

James,  the  apostle,  is  called 45 

is  present  at  raising  of  ruler's  daughter 83 

is  present  at  transfiguration 91 

is  sent  to  the  Samaritans 97 

James,  son  of  Alpheus 01 

Jericho 99 

Jerusalem 16, 17 

Jesus  is  born 13 

is  worshipped  by  shepherds 15, 16 

is  worshipped  by  wise  men     17-20 

is  carried  into  Egypt 20 

lives  in  Nazareth 21 

goes  up  to  the  feast 24-26 

is  baptized 30, 31 

fasts  and  is  tempted  by  Satan 31-35 

turns  water  into  wine 36 

talks  with  woman  of  Samaria 40-41 

cures  nobleman's  son 42 

casts  out  evil  spirits 46,47,79,84,93 

cures  leprosy 50 

cures  man  with  palsy     52-54 

cures  lame  man  at  Bethesda 57 

cures  man  with  withered  hand 60 

preaches  sermon  on  the  mount     62-65 

raises  widow's  son 68 

speaks  parables     70-78 

stills  the  storm 78 

raises  the  ruler's  daughter 81 

heals  the  blind 84.91,110-113 

feeds  the  multitude 87 

is  transfigured 92 

heals  lepers 98 

raises  Lazarus 114,115 

speaks  in  parables 119-129 

enters  into  Jerusalem     136 

eats  the  Passover 156-163 

is  betrayed 165 

is  taken  to  palace  of  High  Priest 167 

is  mocked 170 

is  taken  before  Pilate 171 

is  scourged 173 

is  crucified 176 

rises  from  the  dead 184 

appears  to  disciples 187-194 

ascends  into  heaven 195 

Jews 17 

Joanna 69 


INDEX.  201 

PAGE 

John,  rhe  Baptist 27-81, 

John,  the  apostle,  called 4G 

at  raising  of  ruler's  daughter 8;'» 

at  transfiguration     91 

sent  to  Samaritans D7 

is  told  to  care  for  Jesus'  mother 178 

visits  the  sepulchre 18") 

Jordan 28 

Joseph,  the  husband  of  Mary 1-1 

Joseph,  of  Arimathea  .   .   .   ." 182 

Judas,  brother  of  James 62 

Judas  Iscariot CI 

complains  of  waste  of  ointment 152,153 

bargains  with  the  priests 156 

betrays  his  Master 164,165 

hangs  himself 175 

L. 

Lazarus,  Martha's  brother 114.115,135 

Lazarus,  the  beggar 125-127 

Leprosy 49 

Locusts 27. 28 

Lord's  Prayer • .   .  105-108 

M. 

Martha 103, 114, 152 

Mary,  the  Virgin,  Jesus' birth  foretold  to 13 

gives  birth  to  the  Saviour 14 

flees  into  Egypt 20 

goes  to  Nazareth 21 

goes  up  to  the  feast 24-26 

stands  by  the  cross 178 

Mary  Magdalene fi9, 182 

Man',  of  Bethany 103,114,152 

Matthew 56,61 

X. 

Nain 67 

Nets 44 

O. 
Olives,  Mount  of 135 

P. 

Parable  of  the  rich  man 70 

sower     73 

tares 75 

merchantman  seeking  pearls 76 

fishermen  and  their  net 77 

king  and  his  servants 95 

good  Samaritan 100 

great  supper 118 

prodigal  son 121 

rich  man  and  Lazarus 125 

Pharisee  and  Publican 128 

vineyard 138 

ten  virgins 147 

Passover 21-23.1.54 


202  INDEX. 

'PAGE 

Peter,  is  called 46 

at  raising  of  ruler's  daughter     '.  .........  '. 83 

walks  on  water     ....'....'        88-89 

is  present  at  transfiguration .'....'  91 

pays  tribute ..'..'. 94 

cuts  off  servant's  ear  and  denies  Jesus  ......'   '     166-169 

visits  sepulchre     '  '         J85 

leaves  the  boat  to  go  to  Jesus  ....      193 

Pharisees „ 

Philip g* 

Pilate '.'.'.'''  '  170-1*74  177 

Potters' field i/U  "MS 

Priests J™ 

chief : : ; ; fig 

high |2s 

Prophets 27 

publicans '''■.':::::::  '56,133 

R. 

Romans « 

Roofs '.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.'.  '.  '.'.   51 

S. 

Salom<r 38,39,184 

Samaritans '     '  X? 

Satan '..'.'. 9 

Scourging ..[.'..'.'.'.'.'  '  '  '  173 

Scribes * Hi 

Sermon  on  the  Mount '         62_65 

Sheep  gate r-7 

Shepherds '.'.'.'. 15 

Simon,  the  apostle '  *   61 

Simon,  of  Cyrene i7fi 

Siloam ji? 

sychar :::::::::::: S 

Synagogues \  '.'.'.'.  48 

T 

Temple 2i 

Temptation q'o  qq 

Thomas 6"\%* 

Trinity •''.'.  ^'.   '.'.'.'.'.   '.'.''.'.'.'.'.'.[  '.m 

U. 
Uzziah 5Q 

V 
Vineyard 137 

W. 
Walls ~ 

weiis ; ; ;::;;; ; % 

Wilderness '  *   27 

Wine  press .  .  '  138 

Wise  men .'.'.'.  17-20 

Z. 

Zaccheus t  ^32  133 


Date 

Due 

•  AIM    TV/ 

__^— — 4- ^m — r 

L - — - — — I 

1      izzzzti^ 

1         ^j 

